


Seven To The Head

by KaffeeKup



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: 420 with Kerry, Arasaka vs Militech, Awkward Flirting, Awkwardness, Blue Moon is here and I love her dearly, Body horror and disphoria, Braindances!, Corpo V (Cyberpunk 2077), Dont Fear The Reaper Ending, Engineering shennigans!, F/F, Heavy Lore Expansion, Hopeless Lesbians, Jackie tries, Judy is rebounding, Lesbian Sex, Literally everything about V is awkward, Masturbation, Memory Loss, Militech plot, Misty terrifies V with cards, Mitch is a good boi, Nomad Ending, Nomad V (Cyberpunk 2077), One Night Stands, PTSD and Anxiety Attacks, Repressed Memories and PTSD, Rita is a shipper, Rita is wholesome and horny, Sex, Technology expanision, Therapy With Lizzy Wizzy, Unifcation War, V and Judy are hormonal AF, V has issues, V is not having a good time and needs some love, Viktor knows his shit, social media with Meredith Stout, unification war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:20:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28235319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaffeeKup/pseuds/KaffeeKup
Summary: She's just a simple human engineer in a very Cyberpunk world, Judy's recovering from a break up and Militech is very interested. Corpo Militech V x Judy, awkward gay shennigans abound! FT Useless lesbians with plot and lore expansions.Featuring Boss fights and the Unification War, smut and violence. Rewritten and creative solutions to the game and Militech vs Arasaka abound!
Relationships: Judy Alvarez/Female V
Comments: 42
Kudos: 363





	1. Under The Bed

  
  


“Oh shit is that a EBM 2066 coupling you’ve got linked up to the power grid?”  
  
“Yeah I uh, the 2073 stuff could handle more but wasn't as certified for rapid loads so I figured the reliable was better”  
  
“No kidding right? You could probably link up some Militech receivers to your net cables so you could transfer info to that braindance chair without having to rely on floor stuff”  
  
“Seriously? I was under the impression that it always had to be hard-wired”  
  
“No for real like, the new tech Militech allows for it. It’s expensive but gets rid of _so much_ needed floor space it’s not even funny”  
  
V was enjoying herself, she hadnt had a good tech talk with anyone in months. When she got the job to go to the cities resident nightclub/gaybar/stripper joint she’d been expecting a bunch of psyched up scantily clad girls with spiked baseball bats and exposed wirings that littered the building, she got both and with embarrassed flushes had to have asked where the electrical closet was. Also someone somewhere was having a orgy. She wasnt a prude but the sex stuff didnt really sell after being in Militech for ten years.

So naturally she was glad when she, in her oversized boiler suit and backpack full of various things had bumped into Judy’s den, initially the green haired women was skeptical about letting someone else tinker around with the power supply but after ~~five ten twenty~~ forty minutes of animated conversation regarding the building, upgrading and even discussion of Judy’s massive supply of machinery and computers (there was also a number of flashing lights), the two had at least something in common to discuss. V leant against a nearby wall with her hand idly playing with a wrench while Judy sat on her desk with a mug of coffee titled “BD#1’. 

Judy gestured to one of the larger machines tucked away in the corner, one that was practically decked with enough switches and buttons to take V endless joyful hours of rigging to use. “That's the power grid, thingy. It's actually pretty new”  
  
“But the actual power cables are not? I spotted a few sparkies on the way here”  
  
“It might be simple wear and tear use, I think Suzie thinks that we need to replace the whole thing”  
  
“Shows what Suzie knows” V grinned and elicited a smile from Judy back on the silent agreement that they, the nerds were in the know.  
  


“What doesnt Suzie know?” The doors V had used were opened in a very dramatic manner making the two girls snap to attention, with a figure strutting through like a queen dressed in elegant clothing and a smoking cigar in one hand.  
  
“Hey Ev’ “ Judy immediately relaxed and crossed her arms.  
  
“Hey Judy, found a friend to conspire with?”  
  
“Eh?”  
  
“I’m just messing with you, hey what’s your name?” Evenlyn turned round to V and offered a hand which V accepted and shook with her much smaller one. With Judy’s bright hair , crop top and boots combined with Evelyn's rather rich appearance V was starting to feel somewhat left out considering she was boringly equipped with a standard boiler suit and a simple beanie.

“V, I got hired to fix the power issues” V replied with an awkward finish.

“We have power issues?”  
  
“ _Suzie has power issues”_ Judy joked, eliciting a snort and then a huff of amusement from Evelyn who took it in stride, she turned back to V and with a raised cigarette, asked.  
  
“Is it going to take long? I have a client who needs to use the brain dance chair?”  
  
V took a look at the connecting wires snaked literally everywhere, making a mental map of the ones that she could identify and sort as being necessary or not. Quickly V disregarded the power nodes and supply that the BD chair and Judy’s equipment would take and focused on the walls instead.  
  
“A few hours but it wont interfere, Judy’s stuff is fine for now” V confidently answered and after gleefully accepting a cup of coffee from Judy who had turned from suspicious to friendly geek, got to work. 

  
  


V liked to keep it a secret that she was formerly from Militech’s engineering corps, although she couldn't remember that much considering that they were all hooked on a behavior chip and V had lost hers, she always retained the know-how on mechanics and tech, not so much net running or anything Net related which people often confused the two practices.

Part of the advantages was that her body didn't actually contain that much cyberwere, instead her epidermis layer had kevlar and rubber reinforcements, skeleton had synthetic muscle fibers instead of metal. All of this made her perfectly suited to grab a sparking open wire that the electrical closet was filled with and turned it off with a few deft touches, being immune to electrocution certainly had its benefits.

She turned switches, adjusted cables and placed them in the correct positions, manipulated surges and downsurges on keyboards while the room next by was filled by an extra person, someone called Jackie whose “considerable bulk” filled the Braindance chair, V even watched the power readings slowly increase on the monitor.

  
  


Having fixed the issues in the closet which mostly involved minor adjustments and simple rewiring, now bored. V twiddles her thumbs absently before running down fingers to amuse herself at the lack of hair and electrostatic charge that seemed to build up on everyone but her. 

  
  


Raised voices grabbed her attention and she watched/listened as Judy refused to have a hacker? Be included in the braindance while Evelyn frantically paced and pleaded that it would only be a one off, Jackie seemed to occasionally respond with answering or asking questions and eventually they reached a settlement. 

Someone muttered something about a bio chip and when it turned to hushed whispers between Evelyn and Jackie, V and Judy shared a glance between each other, one that pretty much said “I ain't getting into that”. 

And then a brief smile.

With flashing eyes.

  
  


“Hey” V walked up to Judy, taking her former position near the wall. “Anything interesting happen?”

“I guess so, but can't really talk about it if that makes sense”  
  
V shrugged and quickly changed the conversation,mindful of how little time they’d get before Jackie or Evelyn came back. “S’pose so. Anyway I fixed the circuit breakers and the wires are back where they should be”

Judy nodded. “Glad to hear it V, and well thanks”  
  


V grabbed her nearby backpack and made to leave, her internal timer had clocked time spent at five hours and she’d have to catch the last bus home. “So I’ll be going then?” She didn't want to overstay her welcome of course, Judy had been lovely.

She brushed past Judy on the way out but a hand on her shoulder stopped V cold. Judy looked away and removed her hand, V detected a sigh and let out a “hmm?” back. Her skin flared a little from where Judy touched but she was too busy feeling, other things.  
  
“Hey V? You stopping by tomorrow?” Judy half whispered then cleared her throat.  
  
“Yeah? I’m here all week, you remember?”  
  
“Just checking, you can uh, go now?”

V left again, a odd feeling pooling at the pit of her stomach but paid no attention, she was busy feeling a bit bland compared to Judy, no tats or fancy hair, she was basically hairless all over and with no real markings.  
  
“V?” 

V turned round again.

“See you tomorrow”  
  
V gave an awkward wave in return.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~  
  


It was dark again, three twenty? Three thirty in the morning? A barren dirt track with mud that clung to the soles of even the hardiest of boots, V kept running though no matter how fast she kept sinking into the mud, she had to escape. 

Her armor was utterly shredded, a massive plasma blast designed to either utterly obliterate or EMP fry anyone who got in its had wiped out her entire squad, people she’d known for years were suddenly erased and their synapses had basically ceased to exist. She had to go, the Utah border with Nevada and then California was close. If only she could get away from Arasaka’s damm drones.

Her own drones, two Flathead combat models had already been wiped, they killed six of theirs though and her behaviour chip rewarded a good kill rate with a steady dose of adrenaline and later serotonin.

V found a fence at her height and she vaulted over, her heavy armor pieces designed to withstand hits from vehicle mounted machine guns were slowing her down and she almost fell face first into the ground. She recovered well for someone at below average height and carrying a shotgun, 70kg of armor and a heavy backpack. Her helmet equipped night vision hud that linked with the chip gave her ample vision and it was the only piece of her that was actually “online” and therefore trackable, apart from the chip.

She was already sweating beneath, not even the synthetically grafted skin could hold back the residual heat of the plasma and the short but terrifying sensation of burnt alive , regardless V kept sprinting, the drones would find her and she minutes at best or seconds at worst.

The worst came to happen, they found her before she could reach the cover of a dense forest and a laser beam cut the ground infront, V dived and with a massive “thump” hit the deck, with deft hands she pulled out her shotgun loaded with slug rounds and killed the first drone, then the second. And then she started running around in a zig zag,mindful of Arasaka’s tendency to play with its food. Her heart was going, beating faster than even when defusing bombs and she only had to reach a wild spot to escape, she could do it.

V’s thundering footfalls gave her position away, again and a snipers bullet barked through the night sky, going through a tree ahead and V did her best to dodge the second one. She couldn't though, she was weighed down by useless armor and a backpack meant to hold drones, not even the chip could contain the screams as a heavy calibre bullet ripped into her shoulder and dislodged the armor plate protecting it, and then without stopping burrowed its way through synthetic flesh and kevlar hardened bone, sheer force of the impact toppling her to the ground.  
  


V managed to get up though , her one good arm grasping at a rock while the other flailed uselessly, she managed to drag herself upright and the HUD showed only ten more meters to go.

She did her best to run again, to get away.

But not before the third shot blew her helmet off, the edge of it searing just past the outer layer of her neck, dislodging the behaviour chip with the sudden disconnection immediately short circuiting the power feeds and with a mass of blood, some bone and Militech graded tech, V staggered around blinded and deaf.

  
She eventually fell into a hole, or was it a river? Memory loss and maybe a bit of brain damage couldn't ever really come to a conclusion on where she ended up.


	2. Odd Ones Out

The patch of red on V’s neck glared in the dirty bathroom mirror. Visible on some days and thankfully noticeable on others, a thick and noticeable piece of scarring that stretched all the way to where a behaviorally chip formerly sat on the left side of the neck, opposite to the intake slot for a regular chip. It was never supposed to be yanked out by a bullet or even by anything but non specialist equipment and it showed, skin grafts could only do so much and on those days where the pain flared up, well. Headaches, ringing ears and nausea followed, blurring vision and on the worst days? A actual fucking siezure.

That wasn't the shittiest news either, V was twenty seven years old and have taken five injuries to the head already, and had been set on fire twice. If she looked close enough she could make out a pistol shaped patch of skin repair on the lobe. Memory loss was apparently the least worst thing that could happen according to Militech three years ago and a ripperdoc four weeks since.

V pulled on her beanie again and moved her jaw from side to side to test that she could still speak.   
  
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”

Jaw hurt a bit, neck felt a bit stiff but she was otherwise okay, apart from the obvious scarring. As long as she always turned her head to the right then hopefully Evelyn wouldn't notice, or god forbid Judy. Second impressions counted.

  
  


~~~~~~~~

  
  


There was a part of her that briefly and strongly considered a balaclava when she rode the bus into Watson later in the day, but given her overalls and general appearance she’d have probably resembled either a terrorist or a sucide bomber rather than someone the local fixer would send round to reconstruct a block’s power line.

The local bouncers let her in with little pause or dialogue like yesterday although V had the sneaking suspicion one of them had noticed the scarring but didn't against saying anything, which logically applied gave the hopeful assumption that it or body wounds like were common.

She completed her first actual tour of Lizzies, one of the bouncers had remarked that it was a rare day for the club to be only partially occupied and V took that opportunity to check as many rooms as possible, even the security ,lockers and recording rooms with a little bit of persuasion that involved pointing out how many nightclubs had gone bust in New York due to faulty and old electrics that hadnt been changed in thirty years.

V’s mental map of Lizzies was mostly complete, she’d been doing this for long enough that she didn't need paper or visual cues now, she knew what area required what. First plan for today and yesterday would involve retrofitting or replacing the power circuits and heavy wiring in the rooms connecting to Judy’s and the rest of the week would be a lot easier, just replacing or maintaining.

She’d also have to face Judy and Evelyn with a very visible and very flared patch of skin in the neck (and the scarring that came up with it) and that brought on more anxiety than ever going to a night club full of strippers while dressed in a boiler suit ever did. So naturally she did the most logical thing possible and simply avoided the two, leaving the work that would needed to be done near Judy’s den to tomorrow and never go near that double door.

Hours later spent with a knotted stomach that threatened to bubble over with that familiar empty promise of seeing Judy stomach, V kept herself consumed by the seemingly endless amount of electronics and wires in Lizzies, an exposed live wire here was deftly covered with safety mandated protective covering, a secondary local breaker that was on the verge of falling apart was taken apart with a wrench or her bare hands and a new one was put in place. No noise or people coming past, the nightclub was thankfully empty in most places and the quietness allowed for no distractions, apart from the ones already there. In V’s head and heart.

Still eerily quiet for a place which yesterday hosted strippers, dancing, music or even the odd orgy and being replaced by nothing did eventually get to V, even in her introverted state and she began to bitterly regret not venturing all the way downstairs. 

Well, showing up now would just provoke more disappointment so in her mind “I’m sorry but I had lots of work to do” for tomorrow sounded better than the anxiety and awkward inducing situation of actually admitting that she felt utterly dreadful and ugly today and didn't want to spoil her image from yesterday.

Eventually V transitioned from floor based work to needing something to stand on, static electricity built up on her overalls and beanie as she mosied over to replacing damage wiring covers that snaked along the top of the corridor, she paid no mind or heed to the build up along her clothes, after all her skin was practically insulated and grounded.

Removing a piece of certified safety wiring courtesy of NUSA regulations from her belt, she made the motions to began the hundredth task of replacement, making sure that the static build up on her clothing did not touch the replacement wire when she put into positioning to cover the live wire, normally you had to turn it off so you didn't shock yourself but like before, V was immune to that but she knew that putting that much static from clothing to wire to live wire was pretty much a guarantee that something would go wrong so she took it slowly and engrossed herself, slow precise movements that required all hands on deck level of concentration.

“Hey V! Been looking for you!” The sudden outburst into V’s ears triggered a short lived panic moment and in an amusing display of cross Militech training and a introverts public shyness she punched the brick wall with a closed fist.

“Fuck!” V winced in pain and dropped the replacements on the floor, a bit of brick had lodged itself in her skin and she cringed, pulling it out with a few speckles of blood.

“You okay there honey?”   
  
V turned around to find herself at slightly below Evelyns head height , even on a box she still wasn't tall enough and found the women staring down at her with a mix of confusion and worry.   
  
“Yeah, you uh. Scared me”   
  
“I didn't mean to startle you V”   
  
“That's okay, I’ll get back to work” V picked up the wiring and hoped that was enough to avoid the unexpected social interaction.

There was no clicking of heels nor the sound of Evelyn leaving, instead she coughed politely and V turned to face her again. That knot in the stomach was getting tighter again.

“V, I’ve been looking for you all day. Myself and Judy are hoping to maybe grab a coffee with you at the local cafe later on since you’ve been so good to Lizzies and us two”   
  
She couldn't resist that or say no, especially since it involved Judy.

Judy who knew things, who equally talked her head off.

Fuck.

Fuck.

  
  


Fuck.

  
  
  


“I’ll be there”   
  
“Good,I’ll come find you so you can change into something more, presentable”   
  
If Evelyn noticed the scar despite Vs best attempts to hide it she didn't say anything.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~   
  
  
Forty five minutes of nerve wracking and anxiety inducing feelings later and Evelyn had practically kidnapped V into a room that could only be described as “a bunch of wardrobes holding fashion ranging from borderline-pornagraphic to the latest and greatest of the 1%s strange fashion sense”.

V already knew what category Evelyn was into, even with her botched sense of clothing it was clear from Evelyn's complete opposite of who and what V was. Evelyn had bright blue hair coupled with a fur collar (that was also blue), high heels that made her tower over the former Militech engineer and to top it off, a scandalous and beautiful sparkly dress. 

So naturally speaking, when faced with V in her battered overalls and boots, Evelyn's first decision was drag V kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, a modest white tanktop that exposed the bumped ripples of under skin wiring, V pleaded it to be changed for a regular tight T shirt and Evelyn eventually relented but “only because you’re so anxious about it”. They did manage to negotiate a settlement on a nice pair of jeans, ones that exposed the ankles and came coupled with a pair of sneakers. V still felt exposed though, something about showing wired up arms and barely having any real curves, Evelyn joked that she had the body of a eighteen year old and a distant memory flickered back that it was closer to the truth than Evelyn realised.

“You dont look too happy hun?”   
  
“I’m used to overalls I guess”   
  
“Fair, but isn't this a breath of fresh air for you?”   
  
“I guess”   
  


V hugged herself ,covering up the insides of her arms and doing her best to not stare at her state in the mirror, she’d be okay with wearing  _ this  _ if it was a year ago, where she was on three meals a day and all of the wiring and synthetic implants didn't stand out. It was like vascularity but instead of veins popping out everywhere it was Militech engineered modification.

“I know what you’re feeling” Evelyn spoke with concern, placing a hand on V’s shoulder as they stood before the mirror.

“Huh?” V raised a eyebrow, Evelyn was literally perfect, how the fuck could she be relating?   
  
“Body dysmorphia , look” Evelyn put a uncovered arm around V’s midwaist, using her other’s fingers to point out various lines and pieces , V recognised them as body parts that had been cut off and then put back together, ones that could be extended or fitted with additional tech, no wonder Evelyn was so tall.   
  
“It's not just me either, how many girls and boys, how many people here do you think are ashamed of themselves? You’d be hard pressed to find one who wasnt, but V”   
  
V turned her head to face Evelyn, hiding that dammable scar away from both her and the camera.   
  
“Everyones damaged in some way, even me. Even Judy. And the more you cover yourself up, the more attention you bring to that part that you wish to hide from the world”

“Evelyn I-”   
  
“Ev , please. You dont need to have those overalls here, everyone in Lizzies knows the girl who fixing the systems and what from I can tell, heard and seen you’re practically immune to being shocked”   
  
Evelyn let out a deep sigh with a hint of confession, V mimicked it (not the confession part).   
“Look, I”   
  
“Those bouncers outside? They’d go naked and hold horse dildos with a chainsaw attachment in a snowstorm if it meant that they’d be able to do their jobs, which is making sure that Lizzie’s is a place for us, the damaged ones to live and work at”

V somewhat got the message that Evelyn was saying, she knew what body dysmorphia was and she wasn't lying if it rang a very true bell inside. The urge to stay covered up was strong though, that she should hide in a corner or be out of sight in Lizzies.

“Evelyn, Ev I have a question”   
  
“Shoot”

V swallowed, would her question offend Evelyn-Ev, in any way? Would she need to pay for her clothes? Was there some test to all this?

“Why me?”   
  
“Hm?”   
  
“Ev, this is my second day here and our second real conversation, I’m just confused to why .This s happening?”   
  
“You mean me dragging you here kicking and screaming to get dressed and then take you out with Judy?”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“Well it involves Judy of course” V did her best to hide the sudden bite of interest that had clamped down.   
  
“What about Judy?”   
  
“”What about Judy she says”, V you are the one person I’ve ever seen or heard to have gotten Judy out of that fucking chair and then promply talked each others ears off for hours about computers or whatever nerd talk gets you going”

V raised a synthetic eyebrow in the hopes that Judy wouldn't notice her nervously twiddling thumbs, or the faint blush that appeared.   
  
“Point being, you made fast friends with Judy and I don't want her to lose you”

“So V, my question to  _ you is _ . Do you want to come for a cafe friend-date with myself and Judy, no work pressure, no electrical faults that might explode and no people, just us?”   
  
For a few seconds (maybe more like a minute) V considered it, worked it over in her head. That knot of anxiety, of a limited social battery had a strong case to be sure, but she’d just heard a far better argument. True she felt similar nerves that had plagued her for a long time about meeting Judy but at the same time, she  _ really liked talking to Judy. _

Fuck it.   
  
“I’ll go”   
  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
  
_ I don't see a bullet wound or a knife scar in that neck of yours? You know what I see V? I see a lust impacted love bite from a night with somebody that couldn't get enough of you so they left a near permanent mark. That mark, or marks. Whatever's on you? It’ll always be visible but you get to choose how people see it. Those wires? It's cuz you’re ripped enough to tear a car in half while reciting Shakspere. _

_ “Do I need to take my beanie off?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ No, in a way it suits you and I think you look  _ __ _ quite cute with it on, Judy seems to think so too. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ And to answer your question earlier V, I do actually like you, you’ve got an admirable work ethic and you do genuinely seem like a good person.  _

_ Yes I do notice that blush on your face and the elevated heart rate whenever we can talk about Judy and no I wont tell her. _

  
  


_ ~~~~~~ _ _   
_ __   
This is looking to be significantly longer than I intended. Oh well, I'd like to thank everyone for the ridiculous number of kudos ,bookmarks and followings/favourites. I thoroughly intend for V to be more of the nerdy and introverted type but with flashbacks and memories with the behavioral chip. 

Will there be smut and stuff? Yes, even though I cant write it to save my life (look up the previous fic Fantasies from me) its important to the plot and how I plan for V/Judy to work out.

Anyway thanks for getting to the second chapter and I hope to see all of you for chapter 3, the dreaded social time cafe date ^^


	3. Some Average Idiot

  
The feeling of having a wire shoved into one of the only cybernetic parts of her body, the brain co-opting unit was always a unpleasantly uncomfortable experience, like having a large needle suck up the blood and then stay there, a little bit of pain too, not enough for the chip to block off and isolate the nerves.

A short “wirring” sound buzzed in her eyes as the jack unit was fully inserted and V winced, strange numbers and readings started floating in her eyes and she struggled to understand or even concentrate on what they meant.

“Look at the stick V, F and N had the same problems so you’re not alone in this okay?” Somebody in a hazmat suit directed her and the chip obeyed, V’s eyes followed the waving red tinted stick and ignored the pain and the sounds.

“We’re live, turn the chip off, need a full and proper reading”  
  
“Can we turn her off too?”   
  
“No, she’s not cybernetic like the rest remember? Besides we need her alive and kicking”   
  
“Roger, starting the recording. NB Sixty Three Dash Two, subject V”   
  
  
The chip switched off, a noticeable click from inside her head and V suddenly felt cold, then warm and then in between, her skin crackled as waves of blue washed over and she did her best to keep following the stick.

“V we need to ask you a series of questions, I need a yes or a no right now to understand if you can?”  
  
“Y-yes?”   
  
“How old are you V?”   
  
“Twenty three”   
  
“How old is the subject's body additional?”   
  
“Seventeen, hormone levels are below that needed for puberty, no sexual activity or even any indication that the menstrual cycle exists”   
  
“Excellent, V can you remember the last time you had a period?”   
“Never had one?”   
  
“Excellent! The board will be pleased with this, you’ve been a good girl with answering our questions V, how do you feel at the moment?”   
  
“I feel cold and warm and like there's that. Well my skin is tingly and stuff”   
  
“Good good, just a few more okay?”   
  
“Okay”   
  
“If I said that my striking pin is misaligned and that my rank is a simple QRF response soldier, what is the most likely reason for my gun misfiring and what did I do?”   
  
“You probably banged your gun against a rock, a extremely short turn solution that eventually misaligned the chamber and results in the striking pin not hitting the bullet”   
  
“Good! What is the hydraulic-grade line?”   
  
“It is the line in which shows the variation of piezometric head”   
  
“Excellent V” A hand patted the top of her head and she felt a strange feeling of satisfaction, that she was working properly”   
  
“Two more questions V, are you up for them?”   
  
V nodded and resisted the urge to turn her head or feel the connected wires that were penetrated into her brain.   
  
“If a newly assembled Basilisk was just transported by truck has found to be defective, such as the autocannon not working and the synapse linkers between the pilots are offline, what happened with the production line and electric tools?”   
  
“False question, Basilisks are meant to be assembled by manual labour and tools at the final destination”   
  
“And what is your name?”   
  
“V”   
  


“Excellent, are you satisfied director?”  
  
“I am, thank you doctor”

  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  


~~~~~~~~  
 _Log 215_

_Archive Designation E_

_Subject V, original name is unimportant to be honest._

_Dated: 2077. Age 26, actual physical age. 18_

  
_The bullet resistant implants have worked surprisingly well, V and at least twelve of her designation have survived multiple gunshots and sharp objects to the body, V has apparently taken a large calibre pistol through the hippocampi. Normally we’d be able to repair it with little effort but V like her class is completely organic so I presume memory loss and the usual seizures to be common, I suppose that I should be worried or something but its simply fascinating to watch the control/behavioural chip to keep her body in a sort of extended stasis, how long will she remain at the physical age of 18? I dont know but my current guess is every three of real time is one year or less of actual body time, if we fine tune it we may be able to stop aging forever._

_What my assistant is concerned about however is of course the brain damage, I’ve never seen anyone (unless you count cyborgs) continue to remain functional with repeated and intentional brain damage, she cant remember her original name and her past life (subject of our conditioning and the chip) even with the chips repair of the neurons and watnot. What my assistant fails to realise is that this has unexpectedly become a boon, if we can somehow replicate those results we’ll be able to create soldiers and personsell with no previous ties to any group, organisation or even religion and nationality. Free to mould as we see fit. The board will be pleased. Infact combined with the aging Militech stands to make billions if not trillions to the desperate 1% who never want to die, I know Arasaka would be screaming bloody murder if the word ever got out._

_My only real worry is that V and about sixteen others have shown to be unexpectedly fragile with regards to combat, of course they are immune to Arakasa’s netrunners and the havoc they tend to perform on our troops but our latest project? .Immune. The same goes for electronics such as EMP and even low level plasma, however its been noted in the field that the same level of human fragility still exists, we simply can't create the same style of bullet and combat durability that we can expect with baseline soldiers and field units have had to resort to stuffing them in armor and arms that we’d normally reserve for spec ops._

_We are so close to taking on Araska if we can find the funds and the people to start mass producing V and her designation, as we all know Araska is so utterly dependent on the net, hacking and smart anti cyber systems that they’ll be unable to counter company or even battalion level units of my project. We just need to keep them safe for now, no unexpected incursions or even combat work. They’re the best kind of test subjects anyone could hope for and I forbid any level of sexual contact or relationships to dull their memory, we need what is in their chips and in one piece._

_For now I’ll be storing this in V’s head, the chip to be precise with a copy in my own files. Just in case anything happens to one or the other but I hope it doesn't, it's strange and oddly amusing to turn anyone into a childlike drone that does whatever you want. Now I think about it the top 1% would pay heaps of eddies for children that do anything they please._

_Final thoughts? I’m gonna take a visit to the spirits to forget about the previous paragraph. And I think my project regarding genetically modified soldiers, preciously the combination of assault, combat and engineer to be the breakthrough I’ve needed for decades._

_Actually! Now I think about it,_ _there is something wrong with V_ _._ _I did touch on the memory loss earlier but the effects it's had on V have been unreplicated elsewhere. Common simple blows to the head have resulted in raging seizures , jerking of the arms and legs, sometimes even impaired vision and blindness, not to mention foaming at the mouth and loss of muscle control. I’m looking into what's causing it but I dont know, this simply shouldn't be happening, not with the control system we have in place and the accelerated healing from a puberty that wont happen. No chance of death or any kind of impairment of course, I wonder if the chip has anything to do with it? More research to perform I suppose._

_It's not going to keep me up at night but still, its an annoying occurrence and one I aim to correct in the following year or so, I cannot simply bear to have a flawed subject. Funny that this average idiot we kidnapped out of the desert has gotten so far, that some shy introvert with barely a lick of intelligence and carrying a hicks wrench has the potential to be my most interesting science case of the century._


	4. Organic Sensibilities

Evelyn played the part of the mother hen, practically shoving V and Judy into the nearest table with them facing at opposite ends while she grabbed a waiter. No real conversation was had between the two girls while they waited other than short comments about the tacky decoration and aggressively American food such as the Freedom burger and 2nd AMD fries, when V copped a joke regarding 

“I uh, like your beanie V. It suits you”    
  
“Ow! Ev!”   
  
“Where did you get it from?” Judy blurted out a reply to her own question, furiously rubbing her knee (V presumed) from under the table with a bemused Evelyn watching. V had expected a social dinner (date?) to go this way, neither she or Judy were particularly good talkers and Evelyn seemed to be the kind of person that carried the conversation.

Until Judy mentioned her beanie. V had been quietly enjoying an actual plate of food rather than the usual processed burritos or cheap pizzas that constituted a diet on the move. “Got it from some store on the outskirts, it's nothing special to be honest”   
  
“Oh, okay”   
  
“It does suit you V, the blue colour matches with your eyes and jeans with the black t-shirt as a nice counter, don't you think so too Judy?” Evelyn smiled from across the table with a hand resting on Judy’s arm, just a coffee and the smallest meal out of all of them.

Judy simply nodded, V sort of understood. She wasn't that great at complimenting people either, but social circumstances usually stipulated from the odd conversations she had with people to reply in return with something. What was she supposed to say without the impression that she was a idiot or a pervert? “Hey Judy, I wanna compliment you and stuff but I can't think of anything since my brain just shuts down”. Come to think of it, that just sounds pathetic.

“Is that a MB-Reader Mark Four?” She asked, utterly unsure whether or not it would be appropriate to go from crappy clothing to cyberware but at least she had a idea of what it was.

“Yeah, I had it attached after the portable versions kept falling off all the time” 

“Why the Mark Four? The five and six are lighter and smaller with greater processing power and cores” 

Judy perked up from the awkward and somewhat sullen state, sitting up rather than slouching and V found herself mimicking. “Four has the best memory capacity and since it's the biggest I can tinker with it to increase the load bearing”

“I see, are you using EMB or IEC components for upgrading?”   
  
Judy frowned and seemed lost in thought for a few seconds, Evelyn said something along the lines of “nerd talk time” but otherwise kept quiet, V had the distinct impression that she was going to let it happen and not intervene.

Judy did reply eventually, stabbing a fork into her food. “You can use those for head mounted cyberwear?” 

Nodding and copying the fork stab maneuver, V quickly went through memories of almost ten years of Militech, recalling the times and fond moments of quiet tinkering and modification. “Yeah, you can strip out the CPU cores from workstations and 3D renderers, we did all the time at Militech for increasing the processing speed of targeting software”   
  
“Wait you worked for Militech? As in Militech-Militech?” Evelyn scoffed in disbelief while Judy raised an interested eyebrow.

  
“Yeah, I uh. I worked for them” V stammered.

“How? You look early twenties at best?   
  
“I’m not early twenties?”   
  
“V how old are you?”   
  
“Twenty seven”   
  
“The fuck?”

In that second, V knew what was going to happen. And happen it did, many coffees became cold as the rest of the time on what was previously a friendly dinner date were spent revealing to the two very interested parties that she’d spent almost ten years at Militech, she couldn't remember how she was recruited or how she even got to Night City but that wasnt the focus.

Evelyn practically grilled her with, how and why V quote “looked so fucking young” V’s reaction was to blush heavily, and stammer her way through Evelyn’s interrogation. She answered as much as she could but withheld certain points, the chip in her that was now lying somewhere in Utah, the fact that she was extremely human with no real cyberwere installed besides the standard access point in the right side of the neck and the wrist, both of which were useless without the chip. Uncomfortable as it made her feel, V did agree to answer Evelyn and she did agree to dinner.

Judy was more, impersonal? She asked if V worked with robotics with the answer that while V maintained and modified robots, she didnt program them. That was the job of the netrunners and actual computer minded people, all V did was use handheld tools.   
  
“Ever worked with flatheads?”   
  
“Yeah, Satheads and Broadheads too”   
  
“Eh? Whatcha mean?”   
  
“The two other versions of the Flathead, Militech tends to keep them out of the way of the commercial market”   
  
“What are they?” Judy was getting  _ really interested now. _ Evelyn whispered to her about something that got a reaction and a slight red hue. V was honestly just happy to be talking about a subject that didn't relate to her body.

“Satheads are communication and hacking, Netrunners and officers use them” V replied, remembering all the times she had to physically hold the wonky and breakable antennae of the spider like robot up so it could connect to the satellite arrays, usually when it was raining.

“And the Broadheads?” Judy’s eyes met her and for a second V was briefly captivated by how fucking beautiful they were, if Judy wasnt pretty enough to give V a petty feeling of awkward jealousy then she was now.

"V”

“Shit sorry”   
  
“Broadheads are what I worked with most actually, they’re specialist engineering units and are the heaviest spider models. Really useful with plasma cutters and a suite of tools. I really liked mine and used him all the time for repairing damaged vehicles and cutting through wires, you know they can disable mines with their cutters? A hot blast of directed superheated plasma will cut through the mines sensor’s and short circuit them into disabled mode and-” 

V stopped and realised she was rambling on about her personal life and not the robots and besides, she doubted Evelyn wanted to hear the boring technicalities and Judy was probably more interested in the specs rather than what she did with them.

“Sor-sorry, I was rambling” V stammered out her apology, looking away from the two and deciding to eat the rest of her food, she was shit at making friends  _ and this was why. _

“Hey”   
  
Food became tasteless and for a brief second something in Vs mouth mouthed, like a armored plate on a vehicle loosed and was then hammered back into shape.

“V?”   
  
V looked up ,discovering Judy and Evelyn to still be there.

“It’s okay V”   
  
“Yeah Judy rambles about her computer and brain dances all the time”   
  
Judy let out a small smile and locked eyes with V again. “Honestly I didn't mind, hearing about what people do with their tech, especially robotics is more interesting than the basic stuff themselves Choom”

Evelyn whispered to Judy again and announced she had to powder her nose.

“Hey V?” 

“Yeah? Sorry”   
  
“S’alright, Ev’s gonna pay the bill, you wanna wait outside for a bit?”   
  
“Uh, sure?”   
  
They stood outside together for a bit, Evelyn evidently took a good while to powder her nose or whatever she did. Judy leaned against a nearby wall while V stood close but not close close like. They talked about Judy’s interest in robotics and why she asked V about the Flathead in the first place, apparently Judy had managed to slowly piece together the mechanical puzzle of assembling a small robot from a few months back and had decided to share her project with V with several questions aswell as images and other delightfully robotic inclined things that Judy made clear that she felt V was probably the expert on.

_ Only one slight problem. _

When Judy asked to transfer the files over to V, unfurling her hand port and pulling the wired connector out, a personal and touching gesture that people (as far as V knew from observation) rarely performed, usually relying on the online connections. V felt touched, slightly embarrassed and a little happy at the gesture but.

She had to break the news. Her ports never worked since the chip was ejected from her neck via body and as much as she tried, the only thing that anyone ever got was static.

“I’m sorry Judy but I can't do this, I’m defective” V sighed, pulling her arm away and letting it dangle by her side, mood deflated.   
  
“You’re defective V?” Judy stepped back a bit, concern tinting her voice and confusion marring her face.

“My wrist and neck ports are non functional” She really wanted to say that she was wholly biological and that she was a product of some Militech science team, that she couldnt fucking remember her childhood, letalone the majority of the ten years spent with Militech and that she honestly wasnt lying about having the foggiest clue of how she even got to Night City in the first place.

“I’m sorry Ju-” She began.

"No it’s okay, its okay Choom” 

With a soft smile and reassuring eyes, Judy eased V’s nerves.

And told her it was alright, that she’d bring photos in tomorrow and that they could go over them together during a break or something. She asked if V was okay with that and the answer was yes.

V had something to look forward to now.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~   
“You dont have one robot lying on you’re table but two, look at the chassis and compare it to the head mounting and the legs, not to mention the CPU core system is completely different to the sensor mounting”   
  
“Wait what? How did you know that?”   
  
“Militech’s surveillance drones are commonly mounted in the SUVs, this one is too big to fit in the ports”   
  
“So what exactly do I have here V? Just a random destroyed robot or?”   
  
“Can you put it on fullscreen?”   
  
“Sure”   
  
“You have a Militech surveillance drone and a Flathead, the spider legs and the scanner are unmistakable”   
  
“So two broken halves then V?”   
  
“I’d say so yeah, where did you find them?”   
  
“Found it pieced together, well more like glue’d in a landfill site, not exactly the preemest condition but I’ve spent the past three months trying to get it to work and now I know why, sorry V”   
  
“What for?”   
  
“For wasting your time with a broken bot”   
  
“You haven't, and I think you can fix it”   
  
“What? How?”   
  
“Judy I have a question, did you really find the robots in one piece together or did you piece together the two?”   
  
“I actually pieced it together”   
  
“With what exactly?”   
  
“Why do you ask V? Isn't it busted now or something with different systems and cores that cant function together?”

“If you used the standard glue and mechanical tool technique then you can separate the pieces with a plasma cutter’s high freq and disconnect all the pieces with low settings, then put them back together using the cutter and high strength superglue”   
  
“Are you serious? I could, you could? Actually build a functioning robot out of two different busted ones?”   
  
“Yes! Use the Flatheads body to build a base on, cut two of the legs apart and make it into a quad piece then use the Flatheads power supply and thermal backups to power the thing”   
  
“And since they’re both Militech the CPU can be configured and hooked up to the PSU! Wait? What about the top half, like the actual drone bit?”   
  
“Flatheads are a pretty creative base to build on, honestly I think you could do it, with the Flatheads rechargeable thermal batteries and the lower power demand of the drone you could have it as a mobile scanner/guard unit”   
  
“Guard unit?”   
  
“The Flatheads been reconfigured with a Plasma cutter ,see the base of it where the teeth usually should be?”   
  
“Damm V, you really know you’re shit”   
  
“I do my best, but you’re better at this than I am”   
  
“Eh? You’re the engineer, I’m just doing this for a hobby”   
  
“Judy, you have the creative spark to actually build, maintain and run the robot. I’m just here to help really”

“Wow, praise coming from a Militech engineer? I’m flattered”   
  
“Glad I could help, and if you need assistance with the wiring process or live testing, I’ll be there”   
  
"Thanks, thanks a bunch really. You should probably get back to your shift with the whole Nightclub repair thing. Oh? And V?”   
  
“Yeah?”   
  
“The shirt and pants really suit you to be honest, I just wanted to let you know that”   
  
“Um, uh. Thanks? You’re hair is really nice”   
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~

>Hey V, am I doing this right? (attachment)   
  
>Hm?   
  
>The legs, do I split them down the middle and then attach to the others with the glue?   
  
>Yeah, glue in position and then superheat with the cutter   
  
>Superheating glue? Isn't that contradicting the point of it? D:   
  
>Nah, you’re using SP-338 Glue, it's designed to be superheated with plasma for welding robotics, I did check :P   
  
> :D Will let you know later

  
  


~~~~~~~~~

Fourth day rolled around and opened with a flurry of texts between V and Judy with the prime focus being on Judy’s robot which V encouraged and aided as best as she could. Yesterday’s goal with the Nightclub wiring situation had been finished and she completed her tasks for the lower level of the club so conversations and social time with Judy (and sometimes Evelyn) had been cut in short but they all had some work breaks and with the eased tension and interaction via texts, V did notice a brighter spring in her step when the hours came and went.

Eventually she had to work on the taller parts of the Nightclub, the wiring (always the wiring) on the connected DJ booth that strung along the ceiling to the central PSU had come loose with some area’s protective sheath having flaked off. So with the aid of a tall ladder (her deployable one being irritatingly short) she got to work.

People came and went, 14:30 become 16:45 and she still wasnt finished, that last little bit was still out of reach so V extended herself as much as she could, leaning over the ladder and using her right foot to anchor onto the second top step.   
  
“Come on”   
  
Right foot become just the toes holding her in place. She stretched as hard as she could, arms first, then body and then legs.

Something shifted down below in the left leg, like came loose kind of way. Her skin felt oddly stretched and Vs pants became oddly wet. She groaned, more annoyed that the clothes Evelyn bought her were getting stained with something and ignored.

More wetness, more groaning, the sensation of pain slowly trickled and V bit her lip hard to stop a whine.

She went higher, pushing herself and wishing she was as tall as Judy , finger trips brushing the wires and then. Well.

Her shirt was wet too and her rib cage felt tight, over extended. The extremely odd and uncomfortable reminder of a large needle being inserted was the most familiar feeling but instead like the opposite, like that needle was coming out of her, crawling out of her but not a tip but rather a small plate sized one.

V’s leg went first and she stumbled over the top, the depth of the ground below greedily clawing at her shoulders and the back of her skull. Within half a second she finally tumbled and her head smacked into the floor. V felt herself shake and kick, her muscles spasming beyond her control, wheezy growls escaping her lips. In the maelstrom of confusion her mind had turned into, she could only clearly realize one thing, and that was that she was having a seizure, twitching and spasming and drooling, she was kicking out and thrashing with all of her limbs and she felt that weird sensation again like something was threatening to rip her skin open.

Two seconds later and she passed out.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
Whirring of machinery, the sound of an engine. Her wrench was lying on the ground as she tried to manually adjust the internal wiring of the worked on car. It was hot? Humid even, she felt smaller, younger. Arms like sticks and the wrench felt heavy, she even had hair in some pathetic bun.   
  
_ “-er! Are you fucking done yet? The clan moves out in six hours and we have two client cars ready to go” _

_ “I’m here! The supercharger isn't working, trying to adjust Pa!” _

_ “You fucking serious -mm? You’re sisters could have done this a day ago and in their sleep, hurry the fuck up!” _

_ “I’m trying Pa but the stupid-” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Listen you little shit” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Daddy my head!” _

Was that a concussion she felt? Blood trickling onto her back as she screamed out in agony and-    
_ "I told you not to fucking backtalk me, do I need to keep comparing you to Molley and Casey? Unlike you’re defective and fucking idiotic self they’ve already paid for themselves, hurry the fuck up or else I’ll slam that bonnet down and wont.let.go” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Daddy? Please”  _

_ “Su- Jesus fucking christ you dont get it do you? HURRY THE FUCK UP” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I’m sorry just let me-” _

Another slam ,this time to below the neck where her body outright failed and unable to stop the sudden paralysis she stumbled to the ground, twitching and unable to move. Heart threatening to explode and fear bursting in the nerves, ready to pop.

_ “I fucking told you, christ why dont you get it? Eight years old I was fixing tanks and you’re sisters could do this shoddy works ten times better” _

  
She did eventually wake up, clutching her pained and shifted chest and leg with her hands, fortunately she’d had this happen after hours so nobody was around to check, thank fuck. V didnt want to know what would have happen if Evelyn or god forbid Judy had witnessed this. Eventually V did get over the panic attack that ensued.

She did make a mental note to buy another beanie,  _ that one  _ had blood on it and would need to be binned. _   
_ _   
_   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~   
  


_ Log 8 _

_ Archive Designation B _

_ Partial First Draft Of Project Proposal With Additional Notes. _

_ Dated 2065. _

_ >Warning, archive incomplete. Soft deletion and redaction present! _

I'd like to go over some of the expectations of the board regarding my project, I hope to allay some fears and answer questions as well as propose items and objectives of my own. There are three such areas to go over.

  1. The coming unification war the NUSA is planning and how we can field my subjects for it. 
  2. A quick summary of my project.
  3. The pros and cons of genetically modified humans vs Araska.



  
  
It's no real surprise to anyone that the United States Government is again planning a war of conquest against the free state territories, I estimate about two to three years before it begins, undoubtedly it will fail as per the boards decision for internal sabotage by the Militech cooperation and our assets, my department will assist in this matter by providing sub standard hardware to NUSA troops as well as leaking confidential information to the free states and any possible corporations or PMCs they call for assistance. Even Araska.   
  
A totally United States with Texas and California is not something Militech wishes to happen as the NUSA will gain far too much power , possibly to the levels of the 90’s when it was the sole superpower with massive global power projection. A United NUSA will doubtlessly view Arakasa as next on the chopping block and while a total conflict with them now would result in victory, it would be a bloody and pyrrhic one. But with a successful unification and in ten to fifteen years a easy victory would be assured and I do share the board's fears that Militech would be wholly integrated in the NUSA rather than as the well placed external organisation we currently reside as.

My projects main objective is to reduce the reliance on cyberhardware, specifically the online and interconnected datalink that we so rely on for modern day use, as we all know Araska heavily leads us in this department and is able to hack and destroy our troops in small formations, giving them the edge in a mobile war. It also brings stability questions to our infrastructure aswell as the possibility of large scale EMPs or virus’s could cripple or destroy Militech formations or possibly the company itself is a giga scale (or higher) occurs..

Please see attachment three for the body overview.

My second proposal is the small scale research, modification and eventual deployment of genetically modified human beings that have little reliance or any cyberware implants, arms or technology installed. Of course this will take a few years to properly realise but it has potential. In real time I expect >ERROR 6800 SOFT DELETE, ARCHIVE INCOMPLETE

The installation of kevlar plates around key areas of the body such as the ribcage, joints and light padding around the face to reduce the possibility of incaptication by fragmentation ,shrapnel or shock. This will not provide protection versus penetration or bullet damage but the outfitting of body armor will allay this issue.

Insulation will also be added to the kevlar with dormant nano technology able to localise and ground electrics and the such to the point of which one of my project subjects should be able to handle low level plasma and be able to grab live wires with little threat.

Specialised genetic tools added to the ears, joints and eyes will allow the subjects to have greater low level vision, internal mufflers to prevent common firearm related injuries such as tinnitus aswell as increased mobility, flexibility,muscle strength and durability. However due to the age of which we are aiming for our subjects (puberty) a hormone blocker or redirector will be needed to prevent the body outgrowing its tools, insulation and kevlar plates otherwise well messy things are highly probable to occur.

Other areas of note are >ERROR 360 SOFT DELETE, ARCHIVE INCOMPLETE

It may seem counter productive at first but I aim to gather the widest possible group of subjects, corpo children, street rats and even dumb hicks from out west will provide the broadest range of material to handle and will prove that we can modify anybody we wish to Olympic (and beyond!) levels of physical strength,mobility, intelligence, memory recollection and other feats that will be described in attachment thirteen.

  
Arasakas soulkiller program was initially intended as protection against the rogue ai’s from the Blackwall is a paper tiger and despite their extensive efforts to data wall their part of the net, even storing information in outer space has left Araska uniquely vulnerable in the almost certain event of a breach of the Blackwall, however this is both positive and negative news for us. While Araska will bear the brunt of the attack, they will still be able to completely erase any netrunners we or NUSA field against them in any capacity and the present threat of field use where the possibility of losing hundreds of thousands of troops in a split second from a Soulkiller attack remains high.   
  
>ERROR 4600 SOFT DELETE, ARCHIVE INCOMPLETE

The good news is that Soulkiller and the AIs will be unable to find any purchase in my program, being completely devoid of any usable technology and with the most localised and shield units (the chip) they will be immune to both. 

Lastly if we were to gain the possibility of stealing or making our own version of the “secure your soul program” from Araska, we could transfer memories or even people from body to body A-la Alerted Carbon style from the 2002 file (see attachment twenty seven) it could serve as a possibility for funding and back ups for executives and serve to speed up the initial training programs for soldiers and personell as a simple memory implant could skip weeks or even months.   
  
>ERROR 10500 SOFT DELETE, ARCHIVE INCOMPLETE

  
First draft complete and notes added, we’ve already began to shore up candidates with sixteen “transferred” , so far its corpo kids that nobody gives a fuck up but street trash and nomad rats will be next on the list.

  
  


~~~~~~~~

4.1k words, not too shabby eh?

Sorry for the slow upload, looks like it’ll be every 1-2weeks. A03s annoying double spacing/paragraphs continues to piss me off not gonna lie :(  
  
  
response to comments!  
  


####  [Whateverfloatsyourfancie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whateverfloatsyourfancie/pseuds/Whateverfloatsyourfancie)  
  
Thanks :D Always more to come out

####  [jbish1995](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jbish1995/pseuds/jbish1995)

Yes! This V has nothing to do with the Hiest itself but who knows what will happen in the future?

####  [HomuFMNb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuFMNb/pseuds/HomuFMNb)  
  
:D

####  [Ail_e_gra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ail_e_gra/pseuds/Ail_e_gra)

####    
Theres quite a bit of hinting involved, id rather not spoil just yet  
  


####  [RomanticRealist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomanticRealist/pseuds/RomanticRealist)

#### Thank you! I very much felt let down by all of the lack of corp vs corp and NUSA interactions in 2077, rest to be assured, there'll always be a few (big) nuggets of infomation and text about whats going on and what happened in the years prior!  
  



	5. Unification War: Siege Of Dallas PT1

In the brief few hours before zero hour, most did their best to catch some sleep. V couldnt, she needed something to cocoon herself under and had been content playing with her drones, a childish fascination gripped as she watched them skittle about and climb walls endlessly.

“Right, good to know everyone’s finally awake and ready” Johnson, a man in his 50’s with a grey face and half of his body replaced by cybernetics postulated over a map that was shoved onto a table while his other hand bought everyone in the squad over.

V had been the first to come up after they had been dropped into Dallas by the smallest AV possible, she and the six members of her squad made up a tiny but essential part of the first wave.

Johnson continued, using a small knife as a reference point as he went over the map.

“As those of us with functioning eyes can deduce, we’re on the outskirts of Dallas. Our objective is to secure, occupy and then place jamming beacons on the industrial warehouse about four kilometres away”

V half listened, half watched the skyline. While it was only early evening the sky was lit up and saturated with brief flashes of tracer fire by anti aircraft emplacements and the occasional explosion from their side or the rebels created a brief but speculator star that slowly faded away, likely smashing into the fields outside of the city or colliding with buildings or military targets depending what their pilots allegiance was.

“We don't expect much, maybe a few rifle squads with supporting arms. The war hasn't properly escalated yet so a quick response force or even ground pounders are unlikely” Johnson pointed to the roads linking out of the warehouse on the map.

“Once we secure this place, command intends to use it as the forward point for a base”

Johnson then waited for a few seconds, his attention elsewhere. Probably on the private communications link that he as an officer was granted and then turned his gaze back to the squad.  
“That's it, any questions?”

Ruby, a woman with a mohawk who hadn't put her helmet on opened up with a raised hand. “So the wars kicked off then?”

“In a way, the NUSA VII corps has just started rolling in and we think the navy might be taking a intrest, our support is a ways off and presumably once they all get into position then Texas and whoever else is over there will respond likewise”

“Wonderful, so we’re the first and last for this?” Nash grumbled ,his heavy armor making a rattling sound every time he checked the belt feed on his machine gun. And he checked that a lot.

“Basically, anything from you V or the twins?”

“Nothing” V answered, getting the last of her combat armor fitted. Her undersuit was a blue mesh of clothing, comfort and insulation that was riddled with hardpoints designed for attachments of armor for non cybernetic operators. Medium weight but optimal pieces for mobility and flexibility rather than the extremely heavy but ballistic proof special pieces soon lined her body, next came her assault backpack which contained extra rounds, rations and various tools. She then connected a special chip into the port slot on the right side of her head that linked to the helmet she soon wore, a red HUD display appeared showing her body status, her drones and various other useful and not pieces of information.

Lastly, V wrapped a pair of segmented coils around her wrists, she pointed onearm in a direction and a green line flared up showing her Flathead drone was synced with the targeting, this one was modified with a tech sniper rifle. Her other drone, a Broadhead with assistance and support tools indicated it was ready on her HUD and she gave it a brief command to open up its hardened casing, which it did.

“You ready V?” Johnson asked , behind him shone the advertisements of a skyscraper and then the brief two stage implosion of a AVs reactor being penetrated by a missile.

“Yeah, ready” V replied, the bio chip nestled in the left side of her head giving her a brief dose of happy hormones for obeying her superior officer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~  
The warehouse was standard looking, two stories with intact windows and a large parking bay. The route they had chosen, the fastest was covered by a bank of trees that led into a wall covering the warehouse.

And of course the wall was actually there and not there to an observer from there their direction seemed to be intact, covered and hole free. But the moment V and her squad in a finger formation were moving and spotted, the wall suddenly became a crumbling ruin. And that crumbling wall became machine gun, sniper and pistol fire.

Johnson barked a order but they were all ahead of him, V took a running start into a nearby ditch stomach first, Her drones remained nearby in cover, their status bars showing as 100% operation in her hud and she thanked the stars that they were fine.

The twins, Mihaly and Sihaly were bunkered nearby, their twin assault fires barking out a trio of shots each other at the nearest gunfire from the otherside.

“Fuckin-smart gun! Its the fucking sniper” Nash shouted as a homing projectile the length of a hand buried itself in his thick armor, while it didnt penetrate at first, it was only a matter of time.

“Twins! Keep pressure on the rifles, Nash stay in cover. Ruby! Back up and pin the sniper down” Johnson ordered, his tech pistol blowing bloody great holes in the wall and somebody from behind it screamed.

>Incoming communication< V’s hud blinked and a small window showing a rough map of the area blinked with two red dots behind her indicating the location of her drones.

>V, get the sniper<

“Roger”

V ordered her Broadhead to come into her ditch, rounds bounced of its front as it quickly hopped besides and she opened up the casing with deft fingers to check damage, satisfied there wasnt any she activated its defense protocols on her linked chip and a pair of canisters popped out of the sides of the Broadhead.

“I need cover!”

“Give V cover, now!”

V raised half body out of the ditch, her submachine gun lying next to her as she scrolled through into thermal sights and located the sniper. Wild but stray bullets kicked up all around her and a pistol shot bounced off her helmet. Undeterred with a calming hormone flooding through her veins she brought up her Flathead, power signals showing green as she activated her right arms wrist coil.

>Targeting linked<

Her hud grew dark as the thermal optics showed the body of the sniper, a large smart rifle was bright orange from repeated firing and she matched her segments bright green line with that of her drone.

>Ready<

>Fire<

A brief whirring sound from behind and then a tremendous shot from the drones railgun blasted through the air , the super heavy shot tore through the wall like it was nothing but paper and the sniper was catapulted into the side of the warehouse. Dead.on.arrival.

“Good job V! Everyone, move up”

~~~~~~~~

The enemy squad of the Texas National Guard retreated inside the building, V’s squad moved up into position and breached the doors with charges from V’s backpack, once inside it became a running battle through the ground floor of the warehouse as the two squads traded fire while dashing between the concrete pillars holding the building up, V’s sub machine gun caught one of the rebels with a brief burst and she held down the trigger to finish them off, her genetically reinforced arms and combat armor made recoil a thing of the past.

They retreated up the straits, lobbing grenades to cover their escape, V’s Broadhead intercepted the majority of them with a small point defense laser while her Flathead remained upside down on the ceiling as it pierced a hole above and then inserted a small scanning probe.

Nash led the charge, his machine gun discounted for a heavy bolt shotgun that made bloody holes or building material fly, small calibre fire bounced off his heavy armor while V stayed close behind with her drones assistance and her submachine gun as a faster back up tool to Nash’s weapon.

Calm inducing hormones were replaced by anxiety and a slight paranoia courtesy of the chip as V scanned the stairs and the way up for proximity mines or other nasty trap, she replaced Nash on point as she disarmed a mine with a small sonic item and Ruby reported from outside that her netrunning hacks had disabled the others.

A large AV, probably a airborne command carrier had fallen out of the sky when they got to the second floor, its fusion reactor exploded into a terrifying display of radiation and technological advancement as everything around, below and above in a kilometre radius was evaporated in seconds.

It made the fight for the second floor, against three Texans and three Nomads a lot more thrilling.

Adrenaline spiked everything V raised her submachine gun, then calm when she aimed. A kill was rewarded with serotonin and when she was hit by a bullet that impact into her combat armor, pain dulling hormones were dispatched.

Her Flathead crawled up the exterior of the Warehouse and in a shocking display of free roam mode had punched through the glass window in a spectacular jump and its two machete like front legs impaled one of the Guardsman in the neck.

Ruby hacked another enemy, sending rebooting her optics and then Ruby’s sniper rifle did the rest. The twins two got their kills by simulations bracketing one of the heavier enemies with dual burst. Nash slugged someone in the face and popped it open with the blade of his shotgun while Johnson simply shot the floor out from underneath the last enemy.

"Hold up” Johnson ordered, his hand and eye movement indicating that he was being patched into something.

>Communication with Southern command established<

“Fuck me” Mihaly grunted.

The HUD was replaced with a map of Texas and the surrounding states, frontier red positions were shown as either overrun or close to as the US VII corps with its heavy armor divisions of thousands of tanks and mechanized infantry were barreling headfirst into Texas and onto Houston.

At sea the war was escalating, a giant flotilla of ships named TF 63 comprising three supercarriers of the US Navy with a battlegroup of Militech strike cruisers was already in the Gulf of Mexico and had entered combat with the majority of Texas’s navy, a fight that was already decided and with ten thousand NUSA marines onboard with a complement of Militech for a seabourne invasion.

“So its a pincer attack then?”

“Yeah, by the looks of it the clock was pushed forwards by quite a bit”

“Why though?”

“No idea” Johnson shrugged and held up a hand to his earpiece.

“This is Johnson, site secure. We’re gonn- yeah, I see them”

“Right team, we got a squad of NUSA moving up behind, they’ll be here in about thirty seconds so weapons down and try not to say offensive”

The NUSA squad was led by a friendly faced young girl, no more than twenty three. She and her squad had been following behind to serve as backup (the communication didn't go through, no surprises though) and she extended her apologies for not arriving in time.

“Good job on securing the site, it’ll probably be used as part of a FOB or something when we make the push into Dallas” She remarked, her green tinted armor with its webbing and pouches seemed more aggressive than the Militech ones V and her squad wore.

“Thanks, we heard on the comms that the seventh and the fleet was moving in ahead of time, know anything about that?” Nash asked, his immense bulk making leaning on anything a chore but he managed it anyway.

“Eh, I think Araska’s gotten involved, plus all the Nomad nations are throwing their shit into the mix too so I presume it's just moving everything along as fast as possible” The officer replied with a shrug.

“Araska, they finally moved back into Night City?” V spoke up, remembering the news articles and video feeds of times priors of when Araska ruled the free city.

“It's possible, their main forces are a ways off but we’ve gotten reports of strike teams and QRFs from South America, Mexico and Canada already fighting with the rebel states, so whatever goes, goes right?”

V wasnt listening, her ears picked up the soft but familiar shriek of an AV approaching. “Is that one of ours?”

“Nothings scheduled to come for another hour but-”

“FUCK” Ruby screamed as she wrenched her helmet off , grabbing the neural chip in her head and throwing it outside.

“Wha?” The officer stepped back in confusion as the rest of V’s squad did the same, sockets were thrown off, chips were discarded and helmets thrown out as they automatically recongised the danger, even V did the same.

“Get off the net!” Someone screamed.

But the officer and her squad down below was too slow.

>ALERT< >SOULKILLER DEPLOYED, CEASE CONNECTION AND ESTABLISH JAMMING<

Her face became inhumanly slack, eyes popped while orange sparks flew out. In a horrifying display of Araska’s indiscriminate use of net’weapons the officers ears were turned into flaming pits and she slumped to the ground. The rest of her squad followed, they screamed.

And they died.

V lost connection to her drones, they still remained on free mode, her squad gathered together as the whirring of the AV hovered above the building.

For the second time in thirty seconds, Araska showed itself again. A red holographic square similar to the emergency “walk in here and ill break your fucking legs” that Tramua Team used when securing buildings was illuminated in the windows and then closed.

Johnson ordered everyone to scatter, Nash and Ruby dived out of the window, the twins went downstairs while V and Johnson took a direct exit through a hole. Seconds later a massive bursting charge exploded on the roof and a pair of super heavy , damm near robotic boots followed by several smaller ones landed onto the second floor. The dead officers body gave a cringing squelching sound as the robotic like boots landed on her.

V’s squad got to the first floor and Arasaka greeted them by simply walking down the stairs in a leisurely fashion. Footsteps tumped on every step and V’s squad replied with a hail of bullets, all bouncing off a gigantic metal shield.

A steel clad facemask grinned at them as the front figure raised itself to its full height, damm near hitting the ceiling as a gigantic minigun was revealed in the second, armoured wiring and plates a hand thick covered its body from head to toe while Araska soldiers, clad in body armor and two handed weapons fanned out from behind.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Oni?”

“What?”

“Its a fucking human-robot, we’re so fucked!”

“Command we need! Command we-! Fucking comms are down!”

For the second time in her life, V felt absolute terror. The squad broke apart again, Nash and Johnson were pursued by the two of the spec ops while the twins did the same. V was on her own, she was too slow to get out of the way.

And now she was gonna fucking die by a giant human-robot soldier.

~~~~~~~~~

Office furnishings, desks and computers, even metal boxes and pillars were demolished when the Oni lowered its shield and started charging, tramping everything in its path as it galloped towards V. Bits of debris and average everyday life scattered into the air as she took a running leap and dodged the Oni by a hair's breadth.

Recovering immediately from a prone position, V watched as her Flathead expended a shot into the Onis shield, the high tech railgun that punched through walls and multiple soldiers simply bounced off and ricochet into a pillar. The Onis grinning face leered at her and raised its minigun, the barrels churned and she prayed for a quick death.

But her Broadhead saved her, the plucky spider like robot had positioned itself in front of her and let loose with all the flares and smart jamming technology it had, the Onis targeting system fired at everything except V and the Broadhead was left a smolouring, forty time punctured wreck.

V picked up her SMG and let loose with a return volley, the rounds bouncing off the Onis face mask and shield like it was rain rather than projectiles. She ducked and weaved into cover, the minigun spitting bullets all around in a hailstorm of death, the chip shooting her veins with as much adrenaline as the human body, even a modified one could possibly handle without flat lining.

It ran at her again, seemingly impossibly fast and this time she was too slow, the front part of the Onis shield caught her in the chest and her arms flailed in a deadly whiplash that impacted around the sides of the shield, V’s body careened to the side with a crunch with the armor plates protecting her arms taking the brunt of the damage and they fell off. Her now uncovered arms showed a myriad of recent red criss crossed surgical scars, at least she was eating properly again and the lack of visible synthetic muscles (or otherwise) showed.

A single assault rifle burst from outside thundered inside and it caught the Onis shield, distracted the metal monster ripped open the side of the warehouse in its fury and V took the opportunity to find her Flathead, digging through cover and doing her best to be as silent as possible, which she could without boots on (courtesy of having sound dampening implants) she found her Flathead lying motionless in a corner.

A shotgun barked from the otherside and the Oni ,distracted again returned fire.

The railgun on the Flathead had overheated and V dug into her set of tools to repair and quickly cool the Flathead down, using her knowledge and memory she opened a panel in the back and slotted a USB stick next to a vial of cooling liquid, emergency overrides flashed red in the interior and on the tips of the legs of the Flathead and then went blue.

Satisfied, V bought up her left arms segment and waved it in front of the “face” of the Flathead, its twin eyes glared red, then blue and followed her wrist. Biochip replaced adrenaline with calming hormones as she quickly diagnosed and fixed the Flatheads jammed legs with a screwdriver and a small wrench.

The fire from outside became steadily more intense as the person per side, probably one of the twins and Nash judging by their weapon signature traded fire with the Oni, some of its body showed signs of initial punctures and ballistic marks but it was otherwise fine.

V picked her flathead up and its legs clung to her arm and waist as she stood out into the open, her right arm indisposed by steading the bots body, she hoped the emergency overrides held up as she synced the targeting of the railgun and her left wrist together, holding it as close as she dared with no targeting assistance or green lines to help since her helmet was lying discarded somewhere upstairs.

The Oni let out a battlecry, a whining mechanical roar that shook paper off a photo copier next to it as V fired a round into its legs, the slug leaving a sizable dent as the Oni turned round to face her, V shot a second time and sparks flew out of the dented area and then a sad electronic whirr quietly filled the room.

“Go fuck yourself” Someone screamed.

V aimed at the Oni’s head, the face mask to be precise. Immobile with a jammed leg, the Oni raised its shield to protect itself but shotgun and rifle fire at the elbow prevented it from doing so, its minigun came next but V switched aim and her Flatheads tech sniper rifle , slowly heating up and scorching her skin blew the barrel off.

They eventually killed the Oni by repeatedly filling it with bullets and grenades, five minutes later and the squad still hadn't stopped.

When they finished, V sliced the face mask off with a knife, the grisly appearance of a former human being, nothing more than the skeleton remains of a smiling face , a skull that was criss crossed with robotic implants, cybernetic pieces and a chip.

Seven days later after sending the chip to the lab, V was informed that it was part of a massive network of mobile soul killer arrays, if she and her squad hadnt been so quick, they would have been fried to a crisp by Araskas mobile super weapon.

But for now? The others explained that the soldiers were actually just robots masquerading as people, that they had given up a hard but brief fight. No real match for hardened soldiers like they were.

So it begged the single terrifying question that none of them ever wanted to acknowledge or talk about it. 

Was Arasaka just fucking with them?

~~~~~~

Turns out the original upload was a first draft so whuey we have a second :)

####  [FoxyGuy87](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxyGuy87/pseuds/FoxyGuy87)

thanks! Im quite happy with the reception this has gotten, like so many kudos and views! its actually really heart warming to see how many people have liked and bookmarked this


	6. The Calm

Day five began as the others did. She woke up at six and slept under the bed as per usual but with a small pillow to cushion the back of her fragile feeling head, she was also careful to not bang her crown on the underside of the cot above either, and she had a blood stained pillow to take care of. She’d gotten used to cleaning bloodstains and damaged body parts enough times that she did all of it in the shower, wiping away the water resistant pillow’s stains and running her hands along her ribs and thigh to detect if anything had moved or shifted around during the six hours of sleep.

Hungrier than usual, V ate breakfast with two burritos this time. Her mind already whirring and working on the events of the day, establishing a predictable format and coaxing herself into the usual rhythms that she associated with her now daily life.

V’s phone started vibrating from out of reach, she didn't even bother to strain and extend herself to grab it (she’d known for a while now that she was still too short) and instead picked herself up.

  
  


>New Message From Judy A<   
  
_ Judy A:Hey V hope you don't mind the time _

Judy got up at six too? She didnt expect that, still seeing a morning text from Judy lifted V’s spirts with a smile and a slight bounce in her steps when she clothed herself.   
  
_ V:Eh? Nah I’m awake rn _

_ Judy A:Ok ok, good good. So uh, I was curious about stuff? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: Go ahead? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A:Just wonderin why ya wearin overalls n stuff when you dont need them, like dont get me wrong you look the part but do you really need the boots and the gloves n stuff? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: I mean, I look the part in them but…. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A: Oh? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: My fixer recommend that I should wear them as part of the look but I really really like what Ev’ got me _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A: So ur gonna wear the shirt n stuff? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: Yeah, need to clean them first tho and grab a different beanie :c _

_ Judy A: What happened? D: _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: Nothing, just need to clean them after a few days of work. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A: Fair, btw did you hear about the bloodstains in the main bit? Looked like a fight went on with the red EVERYWHERE x) _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: Oh? No I didnt, must have happened after I left _

_ Judy A: Fair do’s, btw are you free after work today? :3 _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: Uh yeah? Should be _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A: Cool , would it be alright if I asked you to help me with the bot? Need a experts touch _

_ V: Sure? Just say when n where and I’ll head over _

_ Judy A: Actually! I was thinkin of taking my van together home :D _ _   
_ _   
_ _ V: You sure? I dont wanna intrude or anything _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A: Nah haha it’s okay, but fr I do need help haha D: _

_ V: Alright well fine, sure? I’ll see you after work _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy A: NICE, see ya choom x) _

V flushed ,reading Judy’s texts again and again until she was satisfied and believing that ,that  _ actually happened.  _ Over the past week she’d felt a growing friendship, an attachment like a source of serotonin that spiked and kept her mood up whenever she found (and she frequently did!) the time,effort and energy to spend time with Judy down in the BD studio, they’d talk about robots or BDs or usually something stupid that nobody else would get. 

Before Lizzies small talk was exhausting, five minutes with a random person who asked about the weather, her clothing or even herself when she was working quickly descend into exhaustion, that if V wasnt being paid she’d have got up and left. Judy though? V would left being  _ recharged rather than on empty. _ She’d smile and laugh, she’d articulate rather than be closed and the mere thought of seeing Judy  _ again  _ gave her joy, and maybe a little of hope. 

The hope of actually wanting to go to work because there’d be someone there waiting for her, in a way she didnt want the week to be over, that she’d find a way to endlessly work for the Mox fixing things , maybe she could find an excuse.

V was showered, fed and ready to go. Her overalls, boots and gloves sat the heavy backpack that contained an inventory that made any engineer proud. On the bed laid out in a calm and peacefully cleaned way was the sneakers, shirt and jeans that Evelyn bought and Judy complimented on.

A week ago she’d never contemplate wearing anything but those overalls in public.

But like the days prior, today V chose the sneakers, the shirt and the jeans.

And an older beanie, a black one that wasn't blood stained like the one that she’d come near to cracking her skull open on yesterday.

  
  


~~~~~~~~   
  
  
When Judy grinned, V smiled. As V told a poor joke, Judy laughed. If a Mox or someone came in “Judy’s den”, the two of them would engage in the geekiest talk and use the most obscure language and they’d giggle as the Moxes utterly confused face spoke  _ volumes. _

In a way, Judy’s reactions and posture mirrored V’s, although Judy was far better at handling the Moxes and clients while V would awkwardly shut down, look away or conversationally stumble.

Still could be worse , unlike other places that she’d been contracted to work at for more than a day V was accepted by the Moxes to some extent. She was never hassled at the door, offered free drinks (which she always asked for water) and was even greeted by small talk, usually regarding the lights actually working rather than flickering at inconvenient times.

V had the impression that she was welcomed, the passing glances were soft smiles, sometimes a wave or even a supportive comment during her work day. 

“The girls appreciate your work n everything ya know?” Judy idly mentioned as she turned the wheel and swerved into yet another previously hidden road that constituted the spaghetti layout of this particular Night City District.

V nodded as she sat in a semi attentive position in the passenger seat, this was the first time in months that she’d been in a vehicle that wasn't public transport and Judy’s van was oddly comfortable, then again Judy’s coffee was also oddly tasty and she always came back for more, even though coffee did nothing for her system wise.

Once they hit the inevitable traffic lights, Judy leaned on her wheel and looked over. “For real, the lights turn on when you want them to and I don't have to restart anything” She spoke with a lopsided grin while doing that articulating thingy with her hands.

V liked that.

Aswell as the fringe part of Judy’s hair, the rainbow tinted bit that bobbed and bounced up and down or side to side whenever Judy moved a lil’ bit fast, V liked that aswell, it was cute to watch and she often watched during quiet interludes.

V realised that she should probably answer instead of smiling like an idiot at Judy. “I’m just doing my job” 

“Don't sell yourself short  _ choom  _ you’ve done a great job” V flushed at the compliment, high praise from Judy was like a stab of happy pills in the vein.

“Thanks” V mumbled back.

Some time went on, the usual stops in traffic, the occasional burst of speed that everyone motorist in Night City performed whenever they had a clean break. V’d experienced this from public transport before so the passenger seat of Judy’s van was a different, if not more “opposite” experience.

“V, gotta a question for ya” Judy asked, doing that hair bobble again.

“Shoot”

“What do you think of the Moxes?” 

“Hm?”   
  
“You know, the peeps, the girls, Rita, Ev’, Suzie etc” Judy put the van in moving again.

“They’ve been nice to me, much better than most”   
  
“Is that it?, I mean you know. They like you and stuff”

“Rita’s the bouncer with the baseball right?”   
  
“Yeah”

V admitted, sitting back in her seat as she went through the embarrassing and slight culture shock that was witnessing a half naked bouncer with military implants. “She’s alright,doesn't wear much and she terrified the shit out of me when we first met outside the door, apart from that she just lets me in now. Apparently she likes that she can lean against the walls without getting electrocuted or something”    
  
“That's Rita I suppose, dont like girls with little clothing?”   
  
“No but I, I’m just not used to it”

  
She found Judy’s phrase to be odd, was she asking if she liked girls or maybe something else? To tell the truth V had been simply surviving for the past few months, work, eat, sleep. (She wasn't sure if she needed sleep but she kept to it). She knew what relationships were and that while people had casual sex she wasnt exactly sure how the whole sex thing worked and paid little attention to it in the relatively sterile world that her somewhat fractured time in Militech was. Robots and mechanics were easier than people anyway.

Still if Judy was taking an interest then, well.   
  
“Hey Judy?”    
  
“Mmm?”   
  
“Do you like girls with little clothing?”   
  
“Depends” Judy chuckled in response.

V had zero idea what to make of that. She knew that girls could like girls and boys could like boys and that people were complicated, the first time she saw the advert with the woman with the penis she’d apparently seemed to be so utterly bewildered that she actually searched it up on her phone.

The experience was both “educational” and confusing.

But she accepted it, in time and during her adventures and work across Night City she eventually became acclimated and adjusted to the new reality, then the Moxes happened and while she most definitely wouldn't be joining them in the clothing department, V accepted them and for what they were.

V sort of explained that to Judy in the ride to her home, for once V was the one that articulated her hands (although it was more frantically flapping her hands around during the awkward segments). V blushed during the lady-penis talk and while Judy was initially skeptical and questioned  _ what exactly V was going on about _ , V managed to spell out with some difficulty, flushing and limb flailing that she didn't have a problem, and was more confused than anything at the start. But that was in the past and she didn't see anything wrong with letting people be people.

Judy laughed, called her naive and oddly cute.

V’s response was a fake grumble.

  
She did make the mistake of mentioning previously today when she’d been fixing the clubs HVAC’s where Rita had cornered her and asked whether or not she’d been given “the talk”, V of course knew nothing about that and waited patiently for a then suspiciously enthusiastic Rita to come back whereupon V was presented with a banana and a condom. And a pair of scissors. 

Judy almost crashed, almost.

~~~~

Next chapter! Robotic shenanigans at Judy's apartment & the slow burn continues. I hope to be able to properly write the conflict between Militech and Araska via those little data drops and messages ^^

As always, I love interacting with people and stuff to talk^^ So leaving a comment down below and I'll reply back. This has been my most well recieved fic ever and all the kudos and bookmarks have really really helped with my post game depression after finishing 2077


	7. Crossing Wires

_ >Archived Messages Begins< _

_ >Warning, archive incomplete. Soft deletion and redaction present! _ _   
_ _ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >FWD/SUBJECT: PROJECT >>ERROR<< _

_ >FWD/SUBJECT BRIEF COMMENTS ON BATTLEFIELD PERFORMANCE OF PROJECT >>ERROR<< _ _   
_ _   
_ _ From: Captain Alex Miller _ _   
_ _   
_ _ To: Head Director Of >>ERROR<< Operations/Doctor Addison Winters _

_ Sent: >>ERROR<< >ERROR<< >>ERROR<< _

_ The performance of your project director has so far seemed to be both a blessing in disguise and a complete failure in others. While normally I’d dictate this message to a staffer I believe the nature/sensitive information present below in attachments 1-3 are far beyond their prospective pay and security grades. _

_ First, the pros. _

_ The engineers you provided at the start of the previous year have been a unexpected boon to the forces under my command, I understand that out of the twenty five or so “applicants” or what I’m going to call their real names, “test subjects” you allocated five to me or around twenty percent, I am grateful for the assistance they have provided. _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

  
  


_ -as mentioned previously they have both skills regarding the engineering side of, well just about everything to a degree that I would not expect from twenty year olds, they know, perceive and are able to not only fix any solution required but actively prevent issues from even occurring, my regards to the memory department on your side for what is obviously a successful teaching program and obviously a memory swap or implant. _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ Unfortunately while it could be nothing but good news, I am contracted to oblige to inform you that we have had several of your test subjects experience, perform and actually go “beserk” it seems that the control chips that you and we have used to control their behaviour is unable to properly subdue the human mind into obeying superiors orders and on some occasions, break unit cohesion while under the stresses of combat. I hope you see as seriously as I do. And I also hope that you are working to >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<<. _

_ They’re effective in combat no doubt, reactions, speed and training is far higher than our standards but >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<<. Ultimately it seems like a complete waste to throw m(b?)illions into combat, they’re far too valuable for that and I’d recommend we pull them off the line and proceed with stage two , aka the mass produced models or clones or whatever you call them for grunt work. _

_ V, or number three test subject as proven to be unusually hardy, I understand that prior to her “service” at Militech she suffered from malnutrition, brain damage and other physical, mental and emotional difficulties but amusingly enough she has been the one test subject you provided me that hasn't broken down or suffered from difficulties that the others have, specifically subject two and four whom I believe to have formerly been corpo children. _

_ V has sustained multiple injuries in battle and fully recovered with no real side effects other than what seems to be yet more brain damage according to the doctors but strangely enough, is completely fine. She has not broken like the others even when the chip has failed and I believe that >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< -taken quite a few gunshots to the body, even a mantis blade to the arm and she was completely fine and- >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ Out of the test subjects you have provided me with, keep an eye on V, or subject V. Or whatever the fuck you call her, him, it. We seem to cleary have a winner, anyway hurry up and tell Mikey to provide me with some fucking tanks, Addison. VII Corps refuse to fucking send me any heavy armor even though this is the most tanks they’ve ever had since Schwarzkopf and General Cheeszits keeps saying something about energy rods or whatever that cunt means. _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ I do actually want to alert you about the overheating issue, its not that much of a problem since we have air conditioning practically everywhere and enough cold water bottles to choke down a fucking whale but it could possibly be a issue, I wont be sending this message officially of course so you wont need to alert “them” but on a genuine serious matter this could be potentially- _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

_ Lastly, while myself and members of my command greatly appreciate the multi tasking, efficiency and work productivity of your engineers it is disturbing to note that while they are technically of legal age (last I checked around twenty) the faces of a eighteen year old or less and the body structure has made conversation extremely awkward with the people under my command, not to mention the memory wipes (or conditioning?) has resulted in your test subjects invardently going to a whorehouse with their squad and not knowing what a whore is. Hilarity aside I do strongly feel that there is an underlying issue with this, the lack or forgetfulness of real world experience can, has and will hamper efforts in the future, there are only so many tasks we can set aside for them until, well take a guess. In the meantime we’ve solved some of the issues by requiring them to wear helmets, once we take Dallas and then Texas I’ll do you a solid and send your test subjects to therapy.  _

_ On another note before I forget, your test subjects seem to be more stable once they live the life of someone on toury like the people under my command, regular working hours (which they always go over time on) , six to eight hours of sleep (even though they perfectly function on three which I find to be completely insane) and being assigned to regular squads, V has managed to do well on those accounts and- _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED<< _

  
  


_ >Archived Message Ends< _

  
  
  


_ >Subject FWD Messages >Alex Miller< to >Addison Winters< _

_ >>WARNING ERRORS DETECTED, ARCHIVE FRAGMENTED, MESSAGE DATES INCOMPLETE<< _

_ >Subject FWD Messages String 2070, found message string >3< < _

_ Dated 13th June 2069 _

  
  
  


_ >Alex Miller: Have you thought about a name for the project other than the mind numbingly long current one? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ <Addison Winters: No, it seems to fit. The longer the name the more important it is in the corpo life. _

_ >Alex Miller: How about Peter Pan?  _

_ <Addison Winters: Are you fucking serious. _

_ >Alex Miller: I am! The parallels are there,a bunch of kids yoinked off to never experience puberty or ever grow up, it's perfect :) _ _   
_ _   
_ _ <Addison Winters: I’m honestly more annoyed about the smiley face than I am with the name. _

_ >Subject FWD Messages String 2070, found message string >2< < _

_ Dated 20th June 2070 _

_ >Alex Miller: It’s been a week since we last talked, how's the project going? Any of your test subject monkey people been given the talk we all got in high school yet? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ <Addison Winters: No, but…. _ _   
_ _   
_ _ >Alex Miller: Is this about the Peter Pan thing? _

_ <Addison Winters: It’s been informally chosen as the name for the project, I actually despise you right now since I KNOW FULL WELL that you’ve just made a killing in the betting pot. _

_   
_ _ >Alex Miller: Ah, the sound of twenty three hundred eddies hitting my bank balance, tis a beautiful thing. _

  
  


_ >Subject FWD Messages String 2070, found message string >1< < _

_ Dated 17th August 2068 _ _   
  
_

  
  


_ >Alex Miller: Thanks for the support, five of your kids with those degrees will be helpful when we move into Dallas _

_ <Addison Winters: No problem, the coffee shop was pretty preem btw _

_ >Alex Miller: So the test subjects? Are they? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ <Addison Winters: Yeah, all chipped up and ready to be shipped for your command, I trust you with this btw _

_ >Alex Miller: Thanks, it does actually mean a lot that a lowly captain gets ⅕ of this super secret program _

  
  


_ <Addison Winters: Like I said, I trust you to keep them alive and tell me the truth, corpo politics never do. _

_   
_ _ >Alex Miller: You don't tell them the truth either, but nobody does “up there” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ <Addison Winters: Mmmhhmm, could be better off under the NUSA but then I wouldnt get billions in funding or the ability to just tell people to kidnap kids, well I say kidnap. They are getting better lives. Btw did you get the control chips? _

_   
_ _ >Alex Miller: Yeah we’ve got them, I wanted to ask btw. How does a control chip even work? Do we robot them or puppet or what? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ <Addison Winters: You didn't read the manual did you? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ >Alex Miller: I was busy, better to ask the person who created all this anyway. How did you even come up with this? _

_ <Addison Winters: They work via hormones, the happy hormone,sad,anger, anxiety etc. Look up chapter eight sections twenty to thirty four for the details.  _

_ Alex Miller: >Huh, kinky. _

_ Addison Winters:< Well if people agree to be sex slaves for life because of how good the hormones and everything, also drug addiction and the like. Going to a crack den was a flash of inspiration. _

_ Alex Miller: >esprit de corps? Soldiers always need good bonds. _

_ Addison Winters:<Not intending to, well not these ones anyway. Too expensive to put them in danger regularly, I intend for the upcoming Dallas operation and maybe a few deployments to be the projects success rather than permanent deployment or tours. _

_ Alex Miller: Good luck with that, you know how the board and even the NUSA attachments will view this. _

_ Addison Winters:Corpo politics remember? Who said I have to tell them everything? _

  
  
  
  


_   
_ _   
  
_

_   
  
_

_   
_ _   
  
_

  
  


_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ _   
  
_

In many ways, both feeling, scale and looks. Judy’s apartment was the opposite of V’s small hovel. It spoke of permanence rather than temporary, not only in how much larger it was but how Judy had decorated and actually moved in, posters lined the living areas, an entire room was taken up by computers and brain dance tech while Judy had a  _ actual living room _ combined with a workbench off in the far corner that hosted Judy’s current robotic project.

It was clear to V from the moment she walked in that this was a home rather than a temporary accommodation bought as cheaply as possible, inside the city districts rather than uncomfortably on the edge and with a touch screen entrance rather than a basic lock and key. Strangely she felt more at home in the first five minutes rather than five or more months. It was something about the  _ decorations, about the paintings, the style, or maybe that it was just a friends home that bought the odd sensation of relaxation. _

Judy also ordered pizza in Spanish, promising V that it’d be perfectly serviceable (also in Spanish), V simply nodded and eventually after a short tour with a complete trip to the bathroom and the odd single bed in the apartment the two of them got to work. 

It was a surreal experience to say the least, as part of Militechs talented and multi role engineer division V was often tinkering with robots, either personal or company and usually with a vast array of tools, fabrication devices and a array of guns, items or 3d printed custom specified blueprints that would fit perfectly on anything between the lowly surveillance drone up to the AI controlled AV Gunships. She’d expected to have felt different, to be working side by side with a friend who was a complete amateur, a creative one but this was clearly Judy’s first. The hastily lined glued parts that were hurriedly shoved into place by the plasma cutter, wires that would snap off at the first sign of locomotion and she was pretty sure that the USB port wasn't going to function at all.

V reminded herself that this was  _ Judy’s first ,that Judy had bought two separate robots out of a landfill and was doing her best to piece them together, that she didn't have Militech, or the specialised tools or even a reinforced workbench with a steel mask and a proper cutting tool. And that she had agreed to help Judy. _

“Hey Judy?” V asked, running a practiced finger down the welding marks of one of the Flatheads four remaining legs, precisely the right one that was pieced together with the normal middle leg that she had requested to be removed since the surveillance drone needed the space the middle pair of the quintuple legs required.

“Mmm?”   
  
V was shit at this, she couldn't make conversation or interact with people other than rolling a dice and hoping that her mouth matched with what her brain was conjuring. She stumbled verbally, “aaaahaa” and tapping her other hands fingers nervously while-

Judy leant forward, close enough that the rebellious tips of her hair were brushing against V’s shoulder. “I suppose I didn't exactly do, y’know. The best first time job?” 

Did her voice quiver? Alarms were starting to go off, memories of recruits being emotionally taught in two by supervisors when they fucked up, sometimes even a little scratch of paint on a multi million war machine earned the fresh faced kids five minutes of being screamed at. 

Judy’s eyes , as shiny and beautifully bright as they were, hid a sliver of fear behind them, something that V’s extremely perceptive vision and memory was all too familiar with. Was Judy fearful of rejection, that V would do what her supervisors performed as standard and tell Judy that she did a shit job?

_ For a second V was working on a car’s open engine bay, she remembered this. The bonnet that came crashing down on her head and earning her months of scattered memories, seizures and- _

V wasn't an asshole. Like the supervisors. 

Granted she was terrible at talking to people, especially Judy with regards to anything but practiced and impersonal topics, but she had to make an effort, had to. 

“It’s ambitious, welding two drones together and expecting them to work”  _ This was Judy’s first time and she accomplished  _ _ this. _

"You don't have the tools or anything that I used to have when doing this kind of thing, fixing or even making machines out of broken parts and hoping they’d work on the first try”  _ She continued, reminding herself that Judy asked for help rather than be criticized, that Judy was her friend and while V’s shortlist of friends in twenty seven years was small, she knew better than to be a asshole. _

  
“Judy I” V began, initially afraid to look Judy in the eye, that she was loudly fucking up what she really  _ really  _ hoped to be a relaxing evening or something that she hoped to be a regular one. 

She didn't even know that she’d bitten her lip or that her shoulder posture was defensively slanted away from Judy when the other woman sighed and then nodded.

“It’s okay, I think I know what you’re getting at?” Judy was looking away aswell, V’s heartrate (already thumping from a normally excessively slow 30BMP) spiked.

“I didn't want to be an asshole, I want to-” V bit her lip again, trying really  _ really hard _ to connect the words between mind and mouth.

_ I wanna help, but I don't know how to say that I want to without sounding stupid. _

“V”   
  
Fuck did she say that outloud?   
  
  
V automatically translated into damage control, she shifted away from Judy as much as she could without staring at either the wall , the ceiling or the robot. “Shit sorry, sorrysorrysorry”

“V”

V cringed, head bowed and good mood gone, she’d probably ruined everything with Judy and their friendship was gone because she couldn't properly do anything without being terrible at it and-

  
Judy began with a sigh, her voice low but truthful. Her hand was somewhere near V’s arm and V’s skin prickled at the close proximity “You know I’m not great at the whole social thing either, can be such a gonk sometimes but, I knew that this was gonna be rough. My first time at this y’know?”   
  
V nodded in response, silently wishing she could say something to make everything better but found herself just motioning instead.

“So I asked you, to help actually. With this, the whole um. Flathead, drone thingy?”   
  
“Yeah, I. Sorry about that” V admitted with a blush, her shoulders relaxed slightly but she was still  _ away _ from Judy, mindful about her previous thoughts.

“No it’s fine  _ choom  _ , mixed wires or however that saying goes huh?” Judy responded with a nervous laugh, V could feel that hand getting closer and up her forearm, if she had hair there it’d be stiff.

“The point being is, I know that I need help with this”   
  
“Okay, I c-can do that”

  
The hand came again, stroking the air near V’s arms. Judy stifled a noise that she wasn't familiar with and V turned her head around _ just slightly enough _ to catch a glimpse of Judy’s bobbing hair, she couldn't repress a soft smile at the bright colours and the always rebellious few stands that poked out around the forehead.

“Hey” Judy said, brushing the tip of her forefinger against the closest part of V’s wrist, even the small touch spoke volumes about how  _ warm  _ Judy was. V replied with a “hey” back. Judy’s expression lightened into a lopsided small grin and she rested that finger and thumb on V’s wrist before slowly stroking up and down calmly, relaxingly.

“So”   
“So”   
  
V felt hair on her arm, the bit below her shoulder. Somehow the feel of Judy’s hand and hair settled her heart into something normal and she lowered her shoulder to a more comfortable position, more hair followed next and then the brief touch of a hot ear.

Followed by Judy’s cheek.

On her shoulder.

V could have stayed like this forever, all previous experiences and conversations simply faded away and were replaced by her slow beating heart and Judy’s quietly relaxing exhales. She’d never felt this close to someone before, a friend that made the worries go away, that V didn't have to worry about how strange her arms felt with the wiring and the plating because a human being that she actually liked was comfortable with touching it. Cringy feelings aside, just listening to Judy’s quiet hums and closeness briefly allowed V to experience her own body without the self loathing that she’d been accustomed to, that having  _ someone else accept that the veins in a human body's arms were replaced by crisscrossed synthetically weaved fibers on top of a already bulging muscle base. _

Thirty minutes perhaps and later? One of them did eventually break the quiet rhythm between.

“Hey V, mind teaching me how to do this?”   
  
And V replied with an enthusiastic yes.

~~~~~~~~~

Around a hour later V managed to pry off the legs while demonstrating to Judy (who was still extremely close by, enough that her breath kept sending minor shivers up V’s arm and spine) the use of the plasma cutter to melt the glue and a extremely sharp knife from V’s backpack that carefully cut open the more vulnerable and exposed parts of the metallic body. Whenever V looked back to Judy, the girl was always studying V, her brown eyes dark and focused, usually on V’s hands that never wavered, Judy even made a comment that V should have gone into the custom paint business. 

She also used “choom” and “preem” a lot, V still didn't know what either of those meant.

She showed Judy the internal wiring programs of the Flathead and Surveillance Drone with pen and paper, she pointed out the differences in the wiring colours with their relation to the emergency and non emergency systems, how the red could be bypassed to ensure basic locomotion and that by installing her own wiring (which she got from Judy’s box of spare computer thingies).

Once they’d gotten gone with reattaching the legs on the left side,Judy requested to copy V’s work and asked to do the same with the right side, V accepted, sat back and watched as Judy tried her hardest and best to copy V’s handiwork. Of course she wasn't able to match up but regardless V felt her heart swell with pride as Judy concentrated on copying the cutter movements, slowly (rather than quickly before) and then slicing open her previous leg reinforcements work, whenever Judy looked back for support, V would smile and give encouraging compliments , receiving a smile or a quiet “thank you” and with almost double the time taken, she’d completed it. Judy grinned with a wrench in hand and commented “Not bad eh?” V smiled back and congratulated her. After all, she’d agreed to help and Judy was a beginner, in the meantime she’d written enough instructions and diagrams that she hoped Judy would be able to complete on her own regarding the issues she wouldn't be able to fix.

With a pair of screwdrivers and four hands, two minds working together after awkwardly bumping into each other and now in sync, V and Judy pried upon the casing of the surveillance drone and began removing the bottom part of the casing while adding screw sockets and other additions that would securely attach it to the Flathead. After that and with the heaviest part of the manual labor part done, V took out the CPU cores and gave them to Judy along with a pair of USBs and NUSA approved connector cables. 

When asked why she wouldn't be able to program the robots herself V responded that her skill set was more practical than tech and coding based and that “the brackets, the numbers and the squiggly thingies confused her”. Judy laughed at that, eliciting a rather girlish laughter out of V to.

Judy even made a cute squeal when she realised that V’s USBs were actually the real thing and she spent more than enough time continually slotting them into her computer and out again. *click click click click*

While Judy sat distracted at her desk and marvelled at V’s acquisition of early 2000’s tech that was updated to current standards, V took the opportunity to examine her itching neck and the lines along her fingers that had increasingly stretched and moved during her time at Judy’s. Her neck showed a deep red hue in the bathroom mirror and when she tapped her fingers at the glass there was a noticeable delay between the sound of it and her actually feeling. Not to mention the _ weirdness _ of it.

V held out her arm , the pale reflection of her skin contrasted and shone on the bathroom's single bulb, she felt pale, she looked pale. When V’s fingers gripped an imaginary ball and squeezed they started to lock up, like a weird twitchy movement or in a video where the connection dropped and one movement went to the next without any smoothness.

“What the fuck?”

The bony joints in both of her hands fingers began to open slightly, something moved and in a split second tiny etchings of blood dripped out, V starred on in horror as those nerves stopped responding and for a good minute she subjected herself to watching. Soon she was decorating the sink with a smattering of red, little droplets pooling into each other and making bigger ones and she couldn't help but-

"V? That your phone?”

V blinked, slowly snapping out and awoke to the sound of her phone outside the bathroom singing its tune of a text message. 

When she looked down at the sink , the blood was gone, when she held out her arms and inspected her fingers there wasn't any skin tears.

Strange.

The twin lightbulbs in Judy’s bathroom cast a bronze glow on her skin and the lights in the mirror.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pizza came and with that, they’d sat on the sofa together, an oddly domestic habit that V’d never really experienced before, nothing but Judy’s quiet humming and munching, the whirring of the machinery and computers in the next room over from processing a BD. V’s environment was quiet, pleasant, that she’d belong in her friend’s apartment working on robots and eating takeaways rather than work twelve, fourteen or even twenty hour shifts a day. 

V sat on Judy’s left, despite her willingness to trust and be with Judy during after hours and dark, she still felt the pool of anxiety about revealing that red patch of skin that still never healed enough after a bullet had ripped the chip out. Judy asked if the pizza was hot enough with V taking a minute to figure it out and then replying with a rather confused “yes?”. Judy then asked if the spices worked. 

V had zero clue what spices were supposed to taste like. Apparently Judy found that to be funny. And then slightly terrifying when V finished her pizza before Judy’d gotten a third slice off, V just replied that she felt hungry.

Well starving actually but  _ asking for a second pizza felt a little rude. _

_ *Ding* _

Another text, V opened her flip phone.

_ >New Message From Evelyn Parker< _ _   
_ _   
_ _ >Hey you should probably make conversation and ask Judy what her job is, even better. What she wants in Night City. _

“Whose’ that and is that a flip phone? Ain't seen one of these in anything but a old commercial” Judy remarked, sitting back on her couch lazily with feet up, her pizza box stashed away.

“Evel-Ev’ texted, and yeah I got it a while ago, was cheap and it works”. V shrugged, copying Judy’s position but taking care to make sure that she didn't scuff the table.

“You get jobs from it?”   
  
“Yeah, my fixer usually texts. Not really a fan of calling”

They continued talking about the subject of fixers for a while, Judy’s interest piqued at V’s explanation of when her Fixer would send out jobs through texts and that she’d earnt enough through the six to nine months she’d been at Night City to afford her tools and a room on the outskirts. When Judy asked how V’s dwelling compared to hers.

“Compared”.

_ It’s safe and cozy Judy, your apartment is bigger and more well “you”. I barely exist in mine, I sleep under the bed, take a shower and do my forms on the table, I’m there about four hours a day sleeping included if I need to. I can't live there, but. _

_ V? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ It feels to me like you could live here, there's a kitchen, a computer room, a full bathroom and even this couch with its own space. It's personalised with those wall decorations and everything. You live here Judy and honestly I enjoy being in your place a lot more than my own. _

_ ~~~~ _

Well that's the second last chapter for book one, or series one or whatever is the best name. I was going to make it one long mega chapter but the jumping between scenes and changes in mood would be too much, so another chapter to go^^ I’d like to thank everyone for sticking around so far. While I’d prefer to say that V is going to be fine and nothing will happen to her, that’d be lying :P Plot twists and fractures all around whoo! See you in 2-3weeks :)

_   
  
_

  
  



	8. CH8

So this is the longest Seven To The Head has gone without a update , about three weeks? It initially started off as every week to two weeks and I apologise for lagging behind on that front, I’m actually more than halfway through to finishing chapter eight or the end of Episode One, the problem is that there is a LOT of ground to cover, partially my fault for setting a chapter deadline and realising how much there is. Rest assured chapter eight is coming out but it’ll take a while, another week perhaps two? On a fair note there is quite a bit of anxiety going around, not being as good as other fics when it comes to a few areas does make me just a teeny little anxious but I suppose that happens to everyone, the old “will everyone like what im putting down” ya know?

So uh, thanks for putting up with me, I’ve put quite a bit of effort into getting dialogue and character interactions moving along and I hope it’ll be worth it to read^^ Anyway thanks to everyone for all the kind comments and whatnot and when ch8 is finished ill be deleting this little one.


	9. Snowglobes Part One

“Question, whadd’ya want out of Night City? I know it's probably overdone and people ask each other that all the time but I wanna know V”

_ V had ended up staying the night at Judy’s with the techie citing that she didn't feel comfortable driving V all the way to the outskirts at 2am, she’d offered the bed or the couch. V took the “couch” and simply waited for Judy to head to bed at 3am before she wrote down a final list of notes and instructions on how to replace the twin CPUs of the Flatdrone (as they’d taken to calling it), her hands ached and rebelled with pain but she overcome and ended up around the six thousand mark. _

“Honestly, I want to leave. I sort of found myself here and ended up as an engineer for hire. There's too many people, too much going on and with the crime rate and everything? I’d rather be back in the NUSA”

“Really? Damm. I was hoping to go back to Oregon with my grandparents. Trekking all the way to the feds is , well that’s pretty ballsy”

“Oregon? Didn't know you had family and that you want to leave aswell?”

“Yeah, me and Ev want out, shes gonna finish up with that heist of hers and then we’ll be free to go with a stack of eddies why? You wanna come with us V?”   
  
  


_ They sat together on the couch, Judy inching closer and she’d even leant back far enough that she wasn't a head above V’s, the two women chatted about various topics for a good length. Trading life stories (from what V could remember). The time where she nearly blacked out an entire Panzer company by nearly spilling water on the hooked up generators which bought Judy no end of amusement and laughter. Judy countered by recalling a unfortunate series of events for a customer that wanted to be featured in a BD that involved them getting pegged by a horse dildo, apparently the hospital staff six hours later were utterly non responsive and replied directly to Judy that horse related sex toys made up at least ten percent of emergency injuries during the holidays of the year. _

  
“Got my own question, I don't actually know what “preem” or “choom” or anything of that means and people like, expect me to”

“Not used in the NUSA?, choom is slang for family or friend but you can use sarcastically. Uh preem is short for premium and Nova is cool, anything else?”   
  
“Uh joytoys? Heard them mentioned a lot and someone asked if I wanted to purchase a Nova BD joytoy smut flick”

“Did you buy it?”   
  
“Would you be surprised if I said yes?”

“Joytoys are prozzies, uh sex workers. You’ve seen some at Lizzies but we have the more classy and high paying types, you can find a joytoy on nearly every street and its kinda sad to see them basically selling themselves for a coupla eddies”

“Oh, I feel bad now for asking”   
  
“Nah its cool choom, you didn't know. How did you sleep last night anyway?”   
  
“Pretty well, better than under the bed at mine anyway, it's more peaceful with you around”   
  
“You think so? Well thanks I guess”

_ Judy’s hair brushed against Vs shoulder again and she whispered if V felt okay with a repeat of earlier, V asked if Judy did that with everyone she met and the reply was pretty much a “only a few I like”. Cryptic, unsure. V just gave a yes and Judy’s head rested on her shoulder, techie fingers tracing lines up and down V’s arm prompting a uncertain but comfortable shiver every time a digit raced along the synthetic veins. _

_ Eventually, V did pop the question, remembering Evelyn's text. She knew that Judy worked with (and loved computers), was talented enough to have the aptitude to write and program a customized CPU core and even her had own setup, she also told Judy that and was given a “stop flattering me so much you gonk”. _

_ Her fingers still hurt and ached, trembling, weak. Judy didn't seem to mind though. _

_ “So, I uh. I don't actually know what you do. It's uh, a little awkward for me to ask but. I want to know Judy” _

_ “You know what a brain dance is?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Nuh uh” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Judy went into the details of what a braindance was, how it was a massive industry that was mostly used for porn but allowed people to create, recreate and even build experiences out of each other and with Judy’s artistic talent from a young age, she’d always been wanting to create, to build and BDs allowed her to. _

_ V asked about the smut industry and how Judy got there. The response was simple, “sex sells but also the most pure and authentic experiences of people”. And that by having a massive potential base Judy remarked that she was able to work on side projects.  _

_ And that it bought in money. _

_ Enough to afford two workstations. _

_ V commented that she just wanted a laser tool to cut through metal objects easier while Judy was buying the computer equivalent of a space station. With a chuckle and a grin, Judy replied that V was entertaining to be around and she’d love to pick her brain again about tech related things. _

_ “Sure” was the answer, with a hope that it’d be at Judy’s apartment again. _

  
  
  


“Hey when are you finished tonight?”   
  
“Uh, as fast I can connect the last parts of the electrical system to the generators and fix the sound system, why?”   
  
“There's a party tonight, you wanna come as my uh. As my date?”   
  
“Your date?”   
  
“Yeah, you don't have to I mean but it’d be nice to spend more time together uh. Evelyn will be around?”   
  
“Evelyn isn't your date?”   
  
_ “No I’m. I’m asking you ya gonk, you ever been to a party before?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I haven't, too busy” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Well I’m honoured to be your first” _

  
  


_ She found something to sleep under, a tight squeeze below, above and to the sides and set up her alarm for three hours, Judy said she’d get up at around nine or ten ish so V reckoned she’d have plenty of sleep. _

“You really should think about it, your skills could happily provide us with a good source of income while we hop out from state to state”   
  
“Got it all figured out Judy?”   
  
“Mostly aye, just need the cash and then bye-bye night city”   
  
“I’ll think about it, need time”   
  
“Sure, we’re about two minutes out from Lizzies , Rita will probably say something lewd”   
  
“Lewd?”   
  
“Two minutes V, two minutes”   
  
  
~~~~~~~   
  
  


The sound of a spiked baseball bat with reinforced metallic plating scraping eerily alongside the brickhall ,followed by the distinctive clinking of a pair of bright pink highheels that echo’d from the floor and unmistakably into her ears was the double pair of sounds that accompanied blackend crome shoulder implants and lastly a brazenly exposed chest with clothing haphazardly clinging on.

Rita Wheeler, basically.

“Hey,doll” Lizzies bouncer greeted with folded arms and laid back against the wall opposite to V.

Eyebrows raised and eyes on the lookout for any suspicious fruit, V greeted back with a small handwave. “Hey, Rita. What are you doing here?”   
  
“Looking for you of course, someone told me this was your last day” Rita pinned her baseball bat between her legs and the normally stern expression replaced by a more..neutral look, open eyes rather than narrow and a less aggressive posture than what V normally experienced outside.

“Well I’m here, come to say goodbye?”   
  
“Eh sort of, I’ll be seeing you tonight but figured that this was the best time to have you all to myself” Rita grinned with a more sultry expression taking place, her spine arching against the wall, V backed up slightly and averted her gaze from Rita’s chest, or neck, or legs, or anything. She-she looked at her face instead.

“I’m not gonna see any fruit, again. Am I?”

“Eh? Nahh, although that was pretty funny. I do like what you’ve done with the place, power doesn't shut off at random times anymore and I can touch the wires without getting electrocuted too badly”

“Please don't touch the wires”   
  
“Whatcha you gonna do? Tie me up?” Rita teased making V blush and stammer out a “no?”.

“Heh, nah come to think of it, that's probably Judy’s job, or you’re job for Judy. How is Judy?”   
  
“She’s alright”   
  
“She’s alright? You two finally fuck? Saw you come in together and Evelyns been making goofy noises, so spill”    
  
“Eh? No? We’re friends”

“Friends?” The bouncer's teasing expression turned inquisitive, gaze more interested rather than joking.   
  
“Yeah, she wanted me to come over to help with her project and I stayed the night, friends.” V stated, her mind attempting to piece together whatever Rita was insinuating. Did Rita think she and Judy were dating?

Rita’s mouth made an O shape and she leant back fully into the wall, her expression becoming one of pondering and thinking. “Huh”

“Uh, Rita?” V swallowed, anxiety slowly pooling in through her body.

Rita scrubbed both hands over her face, running fingers through her hair with a tight inhale followed by a loud exhale. “Not gonna lie, I had you pegged as a hopeless virgin the minute I saw you but I didn't think you were _this_ _hopeless”._

The bouncer then leaned forwards and beckoned V to do the same with a wave of her fingers.   
  
“Alright, real talk. You and Judy gotta figure out whatever this is between you. From where I and a lotta of the girls have been sitting, the whole inbetween-breaks-running-to-each-other, staying the night and the amount of awkwardness around the pair of you have pretty much confirmed that you’re fucking, or together or whatever. Alright?”   
  
Eyes wide and recoiling a little in shock after Rita's abrupt and unexpected bluntness, V composed herself and nodded with a dry throat. “A-alright?”

“Okay good” Rita continued, letting her baseball bat drop to the floor with a clang that rang down the hallway. “First. Judy as far as I know is smitten with you, shes come out of a bad break up with a asshole chick and I’m glad she did, fucking Maiko. Second, you on the other hand need to sort out what or who Judy is to you, my advice? Tonights the night, no pressure”

V blankly nodded again, racing thoughts aside she was jotting down Rita's words mentally and despite the revelation she  _ was doing her best to understand. _

Blinking and tapping her fingers against the wall Rita spoke again. “I get it you know? The confusion, anxiety over new people, figuring out what they mean to me. But life’s too short to sit on ya hands, especially in this fucking city where people murder each other for the giggles, but listen  _ doll _ . Do what you think is best, alright?” Rita stood up and placed a sympathetic hand on Vs shoulder, lightly rubbing with a more friendly but cautionary tale tone in her voice. V blinked, unsure of what to do with her hand in return so she let it dangle between them.

Rita leant in close,enough that V could make out the stratchings of names on her chrome. “Might need to be a bit more assertive too, I don't think you’re a bad person V. Actually I kinda like you but you should say no more often to people, don't be a doormat okay?” 

“Okay”

“Alright, pep talk over. See you tonight!” Rita flashed a smile and patted Vs shoulders with both of her hands before turning around, picking up her bat and walking off with a sway to her hips, bouncer mode switched back on.

~~~~~~~   
  
“Parties starting soon, people coming in dressed all high and mighty, or wanting to appear that way anyway” Evelyn noted, taking a long drag of her e-cig and turning to V. “Talked to Judy today?”

“Not yet but I - I did talk to Rita, or well Rita talked to me” V admitted, still processing the errant encounter with Lizzies main bouncer and the effect she had on evaluating her relationship with Judy.

Evelyn shifted in her chair ,high blue peacock collar giving the air and grace of royalty rather than someone simply sitting down at the second level of Lizzies night.. “Oh? How did that go for you?”

  
“She kinda uh” V’s face crinkled and she took a moment to figure out the words she’d need to use to actually explain the goings on in her head.

“She told me to figure out what Judy means to me” She paused. “I think?”

Evelyn's expression briefly took on a more concerned approach with furrowed eyebrows before relaxing into the standard calm attitude she normally exhibited. “And that is? I mean, have you figured out what Judy means to you V?”

“I don't know” The beanie wearing techie admitted. “I really don't, everything suddenly feels so fast and like I can't keep up”

“What do you mean sweetie?” Evelyn said softly, a more motherly tone to her voice and language.

_ Racing thoughts, deadlines to keep, feeling that her hands and fingers are splitting wide open, skull cracking, too many jobs, demanding fixers, how is she supposed to see Judy again? She’s fixed up Lizzies too well to expect to be able to keep coming back, she-. _

V’s lip trembled and she gripped the edge of her chair for support. “I feel like I have to rush through everything and that today is the final day of a deadline like, uh,um. It’s-it’s hard to explain”   
  
“Nonsense, you’re doing fine” Evelyn’s disarming smile showed and she placed a supporting hand over V’s that was still on the table.

_ V nodded,  _ physically holding herself together with a long sigh and shifted nervously in her seat. “It’s like I’ll never be able to see you or Judy again and this last day is like saying goodbye forever and now I have to pick and choose what I want or want to do because I’ll be thrown straight into work again all over Night City and I honestly just want it to stop so I can enjoy myself again, like I did with the cafe or being able to just see my friends at work”

V stopped, slumping back in her chair and only realising just now that her chest with heaving like an anxiety bubble had burst inside her.

“Sorry”   
  
“No it's good, let it all out alright hun?”   
  
“Uh, I kinda wish that I could have spent more time with you two, to figure things out. I know I like Judy but this is my first time actually being with people and I don't want to rush or make things, awkward you know?”   
  
“I know, I know. You’ve come a long way in a week and I understand perfectly but that doesn't mean that it's all over after today, we’ll find a way to meet up and who knows, maybe you won't have to work forever hm?”   
  
“I guess”

Her phone started ringing, at this time of night it could only be her fixer and that it was a late night call, a job that needed to be done by tonight and her heart sank when she realised what that meant.

“Who is it?” Evelyn asked   
  
“My fixer, I uh. I don't want to go”

“Then don't, leave it ringing”

“Evelyn I-”   
  
“Don't waste your time on a meaningless job, relax tonight with everyone, alright?”   
  
V closed her phone and sheathed it into her pocket, ignoring the buzzing and the ringing and the notifications.

  
  
  
  
_ “You’re not as unattractive as you think you are, you know plenty of people dig the whole androgynous look and even pay thousands to pull it off, and besides, I think you’ll curve out in no time.”  _

_ I know Ev’ but it's hard to think of myself as a girl, or a woman when everyone here is curvy and beautiful and I identify as a stick. All I’ve got is muscle and bone. _

_ “We all came from somewhere V, I used to be a doll at Clouds that was used over and over again with memory wipes, now I have a home, friends and those I can call my family.” _

_ I need to see Judy before the party starts, go by your’s and Rita’s advice, talk this out and figure what’s going on, but I can hear myself scream to run and hide from confronting my feelings. I ca-I dont want to do this but I know I have to. _

_ “I’ll be here for you, and I apologize about only meeting you sporadically through the week, got too much on my plate but if you need to talk to someone or just hide, I doubt I’ll be moving from this table for a while, got clients and the like” _

_ Alright, I’ll uh, I’ll see you later. And Ev’? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Mm?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Thank you. _

_ ~~~~~~~~~~ _ _   
_ _   
  
_

  
  
“Heya Tom, what's shakin? Aint seen you in a while huh?” The girl opposite her , legs crossed with half an empty glass of something alcohol tugged down a passing guy, one lined with doll implants like Evelyn and practically dragged him into one of the few remaining chairs around V’s rapidly growing table of people, a few of which she knew and most she didn't. A snowball effect of people knowing people that knew people.

The guy named Tom ,rolling his eyes and sitting down then grabbed  _ his friend _ and she then fell into one of the last chairs resulting into a concerning large amount of people in and around V’s personal space, some sitting down, some on laps and others just gathered in a seemingly endless amount of chattering circles and semi circles while the overheard lights (that V installed) flickered between all the colours of the rainbow and flashing lights, strobes that  _ blinked  _ into her vision in a attempt to blind her and she felt that  _ pool, no that knot of anxiety bubble fiercely before swelling up into a raging fire that screeched at her to get out.  _ But she couldnt, she  _ promised Judy  _ and besides it was probably a false alarm anyway. 

She hoped.

It wasn't just the sheer mass of bodies blocking her vision, V prided herself on being perceptive ; _ after all  _ less than a year ago part of her job description in Militech was spotting concealed mines but right now and even with her ability to see past the lights and the lightning and the dark spaces the place where she’d previously sat with Evelyn, hell even making out the people on the balcony was downright impossible, she felt a little dizzy too and her organs were crying out for a glass of water.

The humidity could have cooked a small animal and someone called out for drinks! Within minutes a small collection of standard green alcoholic glasses landed on the table and V, unwilling to appear unsocial drank hers with the others, awkwardly raising a toast with trembling hands to “night city” and “the moxes”. With one eye attempting to scan the people around, dancing, grinding, pushing each other up against walls and some even running off to the bathroom to puke V missed whatever sounded to be a roll call. She wiped heavy sweat off her brow with an arm and was horrified at the amount of moisture gathered on that limb alone, she needed water, badly. Or she was gonna cook in the middle of a nightclub.

“Hey beanie!” Someone from across the table called out with another person waving a empty glass in Vs face to get her attention?.

“It’s time question time, tell us something we dont know” The waving girl grinned, clearly tispy already if her wavering posture and slurred words were anything to go by.

Mouth dry and finding it hard to speak, V’s normally raspy voice took on a tone she never knew as she pointed to herself. “Me?”

“Yeah, b-beanie”   
  


V laid a reddened arm on the table , desperate to lay it on something cooler than the air,herself or someone else. “Can I get a glass of water if I answer?”   
  
“Y-yeah, HEY Maeteo, wat-WATER FOR BEANIE AYYY?”   
  
She struggled to think of something interesting, comparing herself to everyone around the table and surrounding didn't help either, bright colours that outsone even the light fixtures she installed, hips and waists that were breathtakingly perfect while all V had was a skinny frame laced with muscles and she felt  _ completely overwhelmed. She had to look up at everyone else and never in that moment did she utterly despise being so small in comparison, so envious of the others. _

She nursed her glass and thought it through, the bubble of panic and social unease rising as at least three, no four slightly drunk Moxxes stared at her, waiting.

“Railguns can be tech weapons but tech weapons cant be railguns” She blurted out loud at the first “maybe they dont know this” piece of trivia that popped up into her head.

“Fuck dude thats deep”    
  
“Yeah deep as fuck but look at that chrome dude” Someone took her arm and showed it off the table, turning her limb around like it was something to be looked at like a museum piece while V took the temporary distraction to quickly down the entire glass of ice cold water, the sudden injection turning sweltering heat of damm near oven levels to something more manageable, like the summer in Texas.

People were talking about her arm though, they called it chrome or something. Being on display like that just, it just.

She hated it, every fucking second of her awful, pale, wire covered body shown to the wider world and as much as V wanted to yank her arm away, cringe and run then she’d expose herself even more and so with a fake smile and her best impression with that raspy fucking voicebox, grin’d and beared it.

  
“Can we scan her, thats a fuck lot of chrome for that kind of density?”   
  
“Nah its i’legal, HEY RITA?” One of the girls with a pink mohawk shouted loud enough to briefly overpower the constant wub’ing of the DJ.   
  
“Oi? The fuck you want?” Rita’s voice,utterly unmistakable with the tip of her baseball bat suddenly appearing from one of the side exits replied.

“Beanie? She chrome?”   
  
“Nah she ganic”

“You what?”   
  
About eight people stared straight at her, the one taking her arm dropped it with a “thud” on the table , V cringed and slid as deep as she could into her chair as the questions inevitably started piling in. On the surface V managed to deflect most of them, remembering and reminding herself that in reality the people around her were friendly enough to buy drinks, get her a glass of water and were just being curious.

Internally though?

_ “Shit girl, you been working out?” _

_ “Where’d you get this from? Aint burritos from what I’m seeing” _ _   
  
_

Where was Evelyn? She said she’d be around.

_ “Aint you Judy’s output, the girl who fixed the lights?” _ _   
_ _ “Nah they aint together, Judy’s still getting over that breakup remember?” _

  
  


Screaming, out. She needed to get out. Her mouth strained in reality and her brain tasked itself to capacity attempting to balance itself. Heart beating fast, too fast. Like normal people seventy beats-per-minute fast, her fingers were shaking again and she even dropped a glass when she picked it up. V’s skin was fully flushed again and she wouldnt stop fuckign sweating, no matter how much water she consumed.

  
  


She couldn't hear anything but other people, her own thoughts? Gone. Only other people shouting at each other in an effort to be heard over the constant thrumming of Lizzie’s music. Her eyes, hyperfocus at this point squinted every time the flashing lights caught them with the lasers streaming down and hitting various points and people like a battery of point defense weapons, the heat of others, skin to skin in a swelling crowd with continuous jostle of bodies made moving to a more secure location difficult, she was trapped in the middle of people grinding in each other, sometimes a ass or a pair of breasts landed on her and she cringed away, doing her best to avoid contact so she couldn't even use her hands. And even if she could get out she was too  _ fucking small _ to see over shoulders, if she was lucky then a brief glimpse of a exit shone like the light at the end of a tunnel whenever someone below average height darted into vision and then within seconds, quickly darted out again. That rising knot of panic in her gut becoming more difficult to control and requiring  _ more and more and more and more  _ effort to stop from taking control.

Utterly fixated on getting out, nothing else. Her body's movements descended into something rapid and restless rather than the slow and careful combination of honed skill and mechanics learnt over years, she was sweating too much, losing water,salt and electrons every second that were unable to be replaced.

_ She wanted to be back at Militech, listening to nothing over the reliable drongs of machines and the slow thrumming of mechanics, nothing but a wrench in her hands while she worked away countless nights and days with naught but a care in the world. _

When conversation happened, as fast and as chaotic as “conversation” could be in a rave, V replied with out of breath answers, ones that only increased her heart rate to levels she hadnt experienced since Dallas and  _ fuck _ that impending sense of panic, doom, danger was continuing to rise in the back of her mind like she was walking down a forest path and a predator would be stalking her and she’d be too afraid to turn her head around in fear of what was behind or even run because then it’d know where she was.

Her shoulders intensified with heat,  _ her skin burning at the touch even though it was through her shirt  _ as a pair of hands found them followed by eight slender fingers and two thumbs delicately resting. A head, on a body taller than hers by  _ ages  _ leant in and breathed out, the condensation practically lighting a fire from the back of V’s neck all the way to her nose and she shivered in pain.

“V?” A familiar voice, American-Spainish in origin and she instantly processed the familiar markings, the patterns, the speech tone despite a raging headache.

_ Judy. _

_ And that did nothing to calm the nerves, instead everything Rita and Evelyn had said immediately barged into her thoughts and memories like the sudden alarm call to battle stations on a Militech Missile Cruiser with the crew rushing like headless chicken into their stations while gunfire and missiles penetrated into the hull and started throwing people around, bright lights signifying calm turning into red while a slowly creeping fire crept towards the ammunition magazines. _

Mini spikes of lava left over by trailing fingers that looped around her upper torso melted with her drenched clothing forcing a barely controlled flinch every time, Judy appeared right in front, her face a big grin and blushed cheeks, eyes dark but her vision and movements kept slipping, clearly intoxicated. Judy’s hands went to hers, slipping down slowly more like . Gripping and squeezing V’s trembling digits in hers trading sweat and body fluids apart and then together, Judy laughed about something and swayed, people danced around them and  _ fuck.  _ V stammered more than a few times, blushed face and flushed skin followed to the reddest degree and she followed the tecchies movements, or tried to. The smiling and motioning and the swaying she could do, awkwardly rocking her body from side to side while her vision brightened for a second and she saw double Judy.

_ She was so fucking pretty, her lips lit up the room more than strobes and flashing lights ever could, glistening skin just accented every feature and-the magazine room was reaching critical levels of heat, torpedoes had come damm near to breaking the ships back and the start of a early alarm klaxon blared. _

Judy grasped her hips and started swaying to the music, the throbbing beat that kept going off repeatedly  _ back and forth back and forth,  _ smashing into V’s ears and coming dangerously close to overworking her sensory perception. Her hands on her hips, her hands on Judy’s hips. Were they dancing? V’s ability to tell time or even the space around her had slowly dwindled into automatic, like she was watching a movie and the black bars surrounding the screen increased to blocking out everything but the smallest hint of detail. She couldn't even tell what Judy’s hips felt like, instead only able to focus on an increasingly erratic heartbeat that pushed into the unknown, occasionally forcing herself to breathe without bordering hyperventilation.

With a laser beam briefly streaking across her face diagonally, Judy’s hands latched around her wrist, they were going somewhere, anywhere. Judy brought the both of them to a nearby hallway and in that moment of brief relaxation while Judy’s attention was focused else, V snatched a nearby glass of water and came close to drowning herself. Her head was still spinning but at least her organs were no longer screaming in agony like they were being held over a gas stove.

A faint memory, born out of observation crept in at first but within seconds the terrifying realisation became clear and a faint throwback erupted into painfully linked symptoms with hers and when she watched corporate managers, workers and even co members rush to the bathroom to throw up or even delove into a jittery mess of tears and full body shakes whenever their boss wasn't around.

She was close to having a panic attack.

Judy’s breathing came near, close. Condensation at one hundred percent leaving moisture on V’s face.. Judy’s nails brushed and then slightly dug into the space between V’s waist and hips, slick sweat from just the fingertips connecting and interwinding with V’s own while V’s arms flapped uselessly by her side ,the space around became quiet, even the laser strobes and the thumping music became dull and insignificant. Judy looked down at her and smiled, perhaps saying something that flew past V’s inconsistent and unstable switching from hyperfocusing on those brown eyes and dyed hair and immediately swapping to a complete attention on the surroundings around,like that couple making out or the two beers at the table beyond that were unattended but half-full.

Judy came in closer, her heavy breathing invading V’s space and conflicting with her own rapidly short exhales. A at a head taller, Judy looked down into V’s eyes and they met, as strong as the reaction was to look away I couldn't stop herself from just  _ gazing  _ ,as sharply and horrifically bright as Judy’s eyes were, she was just  _ locked in. _

And then she came in closer, whispering something so loud that V’s extremely perceptive hearing four hours ago would have picked up, processed and railed in within microseconds but it was like she was just simply  _ deaf. _ Judy’s eyes became half lidded,lips glistened with light pink lipstick as she pulled V closer, hot fingers melting into V’s skinny waist and setting the nerve endings on fire.

The penny dropped, well more like the wrecking ball from a crane detached from its moorings and smashed through several stories of building. V’s mind, the part of it that was still functioning screaming in terrified realisation that Judy  _ was going to kiss her.  _

  
  
  
Little things ,remembered things just came, no poured thing and she couldn't handle the sudden jittery mess her arms and limbs had become, frantically trying to explain that she was- no interested in Judy in that way, not in the way that she’d seen people kiss in that weird way with the mouth locking or touching each other and having sex like those billboards.

“Hey V, you wanna?” Judy purred, her intense gaze with rosy flushed cheeks and a faint blush assaulted V from one angle while lightly trailed digits around V’s body came from another, rubbing and touching like she did yesterday when they worked on the robots together.

_ “Is that a MB-Reader Mark Four?” She asked, utterly unsure whether or not it would be appropriate to go from crappy clothing to cyberware but at least she had a idea of what it was. _

  
  
  


“Judy-I-I-I” Why couldn't she think of something?anything right now would do, just say but she fucking couldnt like there was a block going on and she was utterly tasked to capacity.

Words came out but meaningless, attempted conversation started and stopped like a stuttering engine that was on its last legs and dying.

  
  
  


_ “I’m sorry Judy but I can't do this, I’m defective” V sighed, pulling her arm away and letting it dangle by her side, mood deflated. _

_ “Hey Judy?” _

_ “Mmm?” _

_ “Do you like girls with little clothing?” _

_ “Depends” Judy chuckled in response. _

Sudden realisation that she’d been hitting on Judy this entire, that this was her felt without her realising it, that she’d never intended it to happen and now she was desperately fucking things up right infront of someone she’d considered a dear friend. Within a week she’d found three people she felt safe around and right now the most important one was damm near close to being lost because was  _ a fucking gonk. _

Judy was so close,  _ too close.  _ Foreheads  _ almost _ touching and less than a millisecond between the act of physically breathing and contact. “You alright  _ Choom?”  _ Her head angled downwards and the point of proximity where if V stuck her tongue out in the smallest of margins she’d be able to taste the lipstick. Perfect skin, perfect Judy skin meshing with rough, sweaty, dehydrated flesh, uncomfortable to the senses. 

__

And then the slamback of today, the same impact that slam firing a shotgun on full did to a target on a firing range flew into V’s overtaxed system and she, well. SSV Missile Cruiser was burning to the waterline with its ammunition magazines sending hot lead and debris into the air while the remaining crew screamed as they were butchered by the fires.

_ “No I’m. I’m asking you ya gonk, you ever been to a party before?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “I haven't, too busy” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Well I’m honoured to be your first” _

  
  


Why did she say that to Judy? WHY. Her stupid brain and self had let Judy on and now she was paying the price.

_ “First. Judy as far as I know is smitten with you, shes come out of a bad break up with a asshole chick and I’m glad she did, fucking Maiko _

_ physically holding herself together with a long sigh and shifted nervously in her seat. “It’s like I’ll never be able to see you or Judy again and this last day is like saying goodbye forever and now I have to pick and choose what I want or want to do because I’ll be thrown straight into work again all over Night City and I honestly just want it to stop so I can enjoy myself again, like I did with the cafe or being able to just see my friends at work” _

  
  
  


For twenty painful seconds, the longest third of a single minute. Image of Judy, close to kissing and the events of the past week cycling past in both memories and real time like a slideshow in her mind, V’s world came to a crashing halt. 

“I need-I need time to think”

Heartbeat, racing.

Faint, dizzy or just plain headed.

Losing control.

Sweating everywhere, limbs no longer responding without shaking.

_ Get out. _

Normal regular breathing, tight and controlled turned opposite into shortness and speed.   
Bottom lip trembling, upper lip shaken by experiencing deep emotion for the first time.

And lastly, sickness. Nausea, breakfast from downstairs was rumbling, rising.

Those twenty seconds, each one a tortuous and slower then the last ended at its head. Chilling realisation bore down and the electricity lever that sat atop of two currents, alien to each other. 

The lever made its decision.

She had to go.

Right.now.

Fight or flight reflexes turned panic into fuel, anxiety switched from a burden to the same burst of energy that saw V through from being burned alive by high intensity plasma weapons, the siege of Dallas that lasted for months and the faint remains of a memory from somewhere bordering Alabama.

Her body turned cold, freezing even. Judy’s touches went from inflaming V’s senses to the same kind of painful sensation that happened when you mixed jalapeno peppers with ice flavoured gum.

Judy’s words, her mouth speaking words of confusion and worry crept from V’s peripheral vision to the centre of visual fixation. She couldn't make out what Judy said, even years later of study never did.   
  
  


Panic propelled adrenaline forced a sentence out of her, a dry mouth choked half the pronunciations but Judy’s still expression, frozen body and those bright eyes turning from a shining beacon in the darkness to hurt and pain said everything about those thirty seconds.

“Jud-jud, I-I c-cant” 

“Wha-wha?” 

Running, no sprinting.No.Fleeing. Barreling into people and shoving them aside with a combination of synthetic and human musculature pushed her onwards and outside of Lizzie’s, the bouncers shouts of -something- reached her eyes but she was too busy, concentrated on _getting out._ V collided with someone on the pavement ,flailing limbs everywhere but she recovered, _stumbled more_ _like_ in her haste to abandon any sight, light or mention of Lizzies, she wanted to go home, hide under her bed and rig her door with explosives so she’d never have to deal with anybody ever again in her life.

One minute and a half, that's all it took from realisation that Judy was trying to kiss her at the start and ejecting herself from the same street block. One minute and a half for V to realise how utterly clueless to where she was, buildings faded into one another and the intertwining streets helped neither, her vision still a little blurred made reading potentially helpful signs practically impossible. 

  
  
  
  


~~~~~~~~

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Seven To The Head

Chapter Eight Part One

Episode One Finale: “Snow Globes”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for their kind comments and words of encouragement, I may have cried a little when I finally got to reading everything on both fanfiction and ao3 so holy shit, I am a massive gonk and I love all of you <3

This chapter was difficult to write, in the end I made the decision to split it in half so we’ll have part 2 ready to go in two to three weeks. I figured out that combining both (ten thousand words or more) with all the different locations and people would be too jarring , not to mention my own preference for relatively short chapters.

Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE.

Author notes? Updated tags and characters^^. Prep for next chapter, V aint even out of the frying pan yet.


	10. Snowglobes Part Two

_ She wiped remains of the bile from her lips, staring emptily down at the trash down that was now just a little bit more full with her vomit, a disgusting yellow combination of breakfast with Judy, socially pressured alcoholic shots and emergency glasses of water. V’s hands clutched around the edges as she had held herself moments ago to steady her shaking body, now still in the same position but this time, post nausea, tears coming out of her eyes at a alarming rate and mixing with the bile down below, she managed to keep herself from collapsing to join in. Her knees weak with a ead heavy and overall mood? _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Complete.Shit _

_ Cars and all manner of city traffic drove on by, their headlamps briefly illuminating the roads and they travelled and shining light on the few that walked the sidewalks before departing onto their destinations, a strange point of view for V that was , to be on the sidewalk. Watching outwards rather than inwards. She’d always been “over there” rather than “here” ,in the passenger seat of a bus, a fixers vehicle or in Judy’s van. Now she was just getting temporarily blinded in the face like everyone else.  _

_ Well only a little blinded. _

_ Or not at all, infact it was more of a detriment given that she ended up staring directly in the headlamps and walked face first into a pole. Sudden disorientation mixed up with barely contained post panic attack bought a sloshing mix of fuck that hit her harder than the dry heave, tears and vomit did. Every car became blinding, every footstep from her or others  _ _ pounded. _   
  
For the past twenty minutes, ten of which folded into seconds of anxiety induced fleeing from the local nightclub and the reminder wondering where said Nightclub was and how to get back to it, to where her backpack, money, equipment was stored in a locker. To where some semblance of safety was (provided she could find a hole or something and not in the suffocating hallways or be drowned on the dance floor by a mass of bodies).

And maybe, a tiny part of her wished that she was with Evelyn, or Rita.

And maybe just with Judy, the Judy she knew from twelve hours ago as they drove into work and not the Judy that attempted to kiss her twenty minutes ago.

V sighed, keeping herself close to the buildings on street level as her skin temperature slowly cooled down from the boiling heat she’d experienced with Judy, the nighttime temperature and slight chill from the seasonal change slowly bought her familiarity with a more mild and comfortable range, eventually her anxiety and panic from earlier dissipated too from a snake like knot, coiled and squeezing tight at both ends into a more manageable tint of dread that was “over there” rather than “just here”. She crossed at the lights, looked both ways and still didnt know what time it was, only that it was dark and probably after midnight and that she had zero clue where Lizzie’s was and that while she had her phone, an old flip model. It had been set to silent earlier and she’d concluded earlier that she’d rather stumble around and find Lizzies rather than open said phone, would there be messages? Missed calls?. Better than deal with facing Judy and Evelyn and Rita at the door and admitting that she straight up ran away rather than.  _ Do something. _   
  
_ Better off not knowing after all, V’s mood was definitely set to.do not disturb. _

  
  


A nearby vending machine provided a contradictory source of light , lone and bright it stood among the otherwise dull apartments and their flickering, old, pre unification war crumbling exteriors outside.

Naturally, V studied the machine for a good few minutes, she was  _ slightly thirsty _ and it seemed to be in the working order, she didn't have money though. That was back at Lizzies.

Another minute, this time a finely combed inspection that went over the  _ details. _ Whose buildings standards constructed this piece of mass public hydration? Who built it? What company?.

She came to the conclusion that it was old, judging by the lack of any signs of movement tracks around, the dust layers that gathered at the edges and that it was purposefully  _ this colour. This bright shining monument to consumption had been placed here during the apartments construction in a and that the walls adjacent were caked with an identical layer of dust. If the buildings were decades old then so would this vending machine. Talk about a bit of Kitsch to Entroprsm  _

_ And that meant that she wouldn't even need to pay. _

Her fingers found a open _ ish  _ disused and abused panel, an open cavern of loose wires not maintained in years later and in her mind's eye a blueprint of basic construction guided two fingers correctly into the right socket and disconnected the correct wire.

A basic vitamin bottle fell out, one that was still in circulation and only a month old.

She then connected the wire and another fell out. This time just water. But it’d do. She needed to stay hydrated after losing so much sweat, afterall the memories of keeping cool had been drilled into her head after Dallas and the recent  _ reminder _ at Lizzies was enough for her to quickly down the water bottle and keep the other in hand. A shaking hand, a strangely jittering foursome of fingers and one thumb where the joints kept hurting and she swapped hands and hid the problem away, burying malfunctioning? digits deep into a pocket.

  
  


There came the question, eventually. Was she planning to return to Lizzies? To face Judy and talk to her about  _ what happened,  _ every time her thoughts and mind even brushed near the prospect of entering the nightclub a dreadfully familiar emotional knot would build and V would at best describe it as a hand slowly crushing a ball, the more she thought about returning to Lizzies, to speak with Rita again, seeing Evelyn and the crowds of people  _ that _ hand  _ coiled every tighter _ and she’d be transported back to the nightclub, back to the sheer terror of being on her own.

Enough to make her head spin, to sit down and collect herself. 

None of that even compared to Judy, the first friend she’d actually made in Night City and one that she let touch, cuddle in some weird way and then Judy tried to kiss her or something and then the friend feeling went away and  _ now replaced with anxiety and that ball being completely crushed.  _ What the fuck was she supposed to say? “Hi-Judy-Idont-know-why-you-wanted-to-kiss-me-but-we’re-friends-right?-and-I-feel-really-fuckingweird-about-this-can-we-go-back-to-building-a-stupid-robot-together-and-forgetting-this-ever-happend?”

She couldn't go back  _ now, she needs to think about it. _

Did her phone just vibrate? Coulda sworn that was on silent. Was it Evelyn calling or texting? Was it Judy?  _ The mere thought of Judy  _ _ calling.  _

No.

No.

She needs time, to think about it.

  
  


~~~~~~~

  
  
  


The netrunner,clad in black and blue (the standard colours), an elite part of Militechs quiet black ops arsenal, almost a head and a half taller, combined with the grim insectoid helmet with its multiple glowing red eyes, reinforced capped boots that went up to the knee and a machine pistol in one hand that had already claimed quite a few victims with its vicious rate of fire and body armor-penetration bullets, the other hand was uncovered, bare skin that went up to the elbow had a series of wires that ended in some form of contraption at the hand, not dissimilar to the glove Judy wore but instead these were surgically implanted and couldn't be removed.

Reactions born out of a combination of fighting in the Unification war, an extremely quick spike of adrenaline that sparked through the nerves and muscles awarding a shockingly quick display of energy and a sequence of training, memories and the very human desire to not die propelled V from a curious stance into diving for the nearest piece of cover, a barrel that she barrelled into and almost knocked it over. Around half a second later a trio of bullets from a burst firing weapon smashed into the wall from where she’d been standing infront of.

A pair of NCPD officers, their nametags revealing they were from the Spanish Valentino part of Night City were dead, their bodies laying together with each having a identical “fizzle” from where their neroports on the side of their necks, the combination of damage and no longer steaming cybernetics indicated they’d been dead a while.

In the span of the few seconds it had taken V to be unfortunately curious enough to be attracted to the sound of gunfire, duck into said cover, the netrunner had ceased fire, while V hadn’t poked her head out, she heard the footsteps of four other people in the courtyard making a slow circle around the netrunner, distinctive sounds of heavy boots betrayed them as also Militech, since she wasn't being currently shot, V listened in. 

“Lieutenant Mower! You are ordered to stand down and await recovery, we’re fully aware of your situation and a trauma team unit has been dispatched here, the deaths of the NCPD officers are in no way connected to the events of today and you’re freed of any charges,just stand down Lieutenant” The officer in charge, a tall man with bulky pauldrons that had communication devices attached and triple chevrons held a hand to the side of his bare head. V dared to take a peek and was rewarded pleasantly by not being shot at.

Instead the officer and one of his subordinates, one armed with a shotgun stood next to him while the other two circled around the otherside of the courtyard. The netrunner communicated back to them in a series of electronic whines and whistles that greeted V's ears whenever she tried to pick up on them in a decipher attempt.

She took the opportunity to study the area she was in, the tunnel that led to the street behind her was too open to risk an escape, Militechs policies towards civilians was best described as “shoot the nuisance” in situations like this and she doubted the netrunner would let her go either.

Right.

Courtyard, two entrances, one behind her that she couldn't access since she’d reveal herself in doing so and the other was blocked off by the group ahead, the sunken middle part was infested by some kind of electrical short circuit and the flanking ends of the area had a single circuit panel each, presumably this area hadn’t seen any major power related renovation recently so the generator below had finally started to crumble,thus the current in the centre, by observing the militech group and the netrunner she could make out that the group stayed  _ far _ away from the edges of the centre while the runner’ paid it no attention, on closer inspection the colour of the boots of the two parties was different.

The netrunner’s boots were rated for being insulation proof and the groups were not, figures.

“Who’d she fire at?” The officer questioned quietly, V’s sensitive ears picking it out as she made no noise in a bid to not bring herself any attention, if she was lucky the Militech group would leave and she could, well.  _ Go back to doing whatever she was before. _

“Some civvie, probably ran off. Scanner doesn't show any c-ware here other than us?”   
  
“Gotcha” The officer nodded and nudged the other two members over to come a little closer , the psycho at the end having eerily stopped moving and presumably they meant to detain them, or something.   
  
“Stout, Markus here, we’ve got Mower locked down, send a AV in twenty and we’ll be finished for the night” The officer stepped back a bit and paced back and forth as he continued his conversation with his superior. V glanced away and steadied her gaze at the two dead NCPD officers, studying them intently and using the brief distraction to steady herself, lower her heartbeat to the low level she was trained and a way of calming down.

Like she knew earlier,Heywood, dead,dressed in the typical bright blue riot armor that the NCPD was known for, a pistol each rather than assault rifles or shotguns that NUSA officers were known for as standard so these two were likely on patrol, their body armor was completely intact with no penetrations or wounds, the helmets though? Different story, on closer inspection the tiny holes, identical to the size of a slot in a neck-neuroport revealed that the chip inside had actually fried and then exploded , a grisly end to be met with if it was anything similar to what the officer and her troops had encountered back in Dallas almost ten years ago, the Soulkiller program had literally exploded heads.

A netrunning program.

Exploded heads.

There was a netrunner and four Militech employees, given the state of the ground around the police officers they probably hadn't bothered to inspect them.

Oh.shit.

The eyestalks on the netrunners helmets glowed from a baseless neutral white and briefly flashed a bright green, in a instant the two Militech agents standing away were evaporated from the living, one of them managed a screaming curse before his head exploded with the lifeless body falling to the ground moments later.

  
  


The one in charge shouted and immediately the antennas on his shoulders lit up, probably a counter signal that stopped the same from happening to him and his colleague. Said colleague was already his pump action shotgun but the shot went wild, a burst of flame completely missing the charging netrunner and setting the wall opposite on fire, their machine pistol spraying in tight controlled bursts that landed into the shotgun wielding soldier with perfect aim, what come out of the otherside was not bullets, but pink mist that kissed the air before hitting the ground.

The one in charge, V identified as a sargent spat out a curse as he deflected a blow from the netrunners combat knife with his armored forearm, the two locked into a deadly struggle for a few seconds before the netrunner backed off and bought their machine pistol to bear, for a second the sargent stood still before his lights turned on again and the machine pistol malfunctioned and then the magazine fell out.

The netrunners reaction?

Like squashing a bug franky.

The netrunner used the opportunity, the downtime in the sargents defenses, that brief switch from a counter jam to an offensive push to simply shut the sargent down and the man fell to the floor in a head, cybernetic organs likely shut off while he suffered the slow death of respiratory failure.

It was only then, by staring in a mixture of awe,terror and confusion did V realize  _ slowly and painfully _ how fucked she was.

Nine years ago in a situation like this, trapped in a courtyard where the entrances on both ends had been remotely accessed by a netrunner and then closed off  _ so no escape _ , she’d been armed with a shotgun and a smg, clad in heavy body and equipped with a jamming bot and another with a railgun.

Right now? A tshirt, jeans and a pair of pistols that were just enough out of arms reach that she’d have to expose herself to and alert the netrunner that she was there if it didnt know already.

Actually the dull thud of heavy boots stamping over skin and then thudding across concrete was enough of a giveaway, V closed her eyes one last time, held her breath and performed her best imitation of a combat roll to the dead police officers, the physical memory of “how to” but unexercised limbs allowing her to bodyslam awkwardly on top of the officers, she fumbled around for one of the pistols and managed to grab one, turn the safety off and press the trigger as hard as possible, the shot going wide as she held it down and then promptly realizing it wasn't the sub machine gun she used to have, V pulled the trigger again with the shot plunging harmlessly into the netrunners body armor, failing to penetrate it.

She swore and rolled out of the way in the nick of time, pulling herself up with gusto and managing to avoid falling over the other dead police officer as the netrunner narrowly missed shanking V with the knife. She attempted a running start from her position but the netrunner grabbed her leg and forced her down, she kicked out and tried to wriggle free but the fucking thing grapped her again and she fell into the sunken electric field, pistol still in hand. The netrunner, having managed to grapple her only by falling over itself avoided the field V landed in like it was the plague, pulling its limbs ,body and hands away like  _ it would get electrocuted or something. _

V scrambled through the electric field, blinding emptying the magazine behind her at the chasing netrunner, well cyberpsycho to be exact as she sought to find a heavier weapon, the shotgun wielding soldier that the psycho went after (prioritizing him over the sargent) was her best chance of survival. 

She reached the body practically diving on top of it to reach it ASAP, trembling fingers aided by the speed of a increased heart rate pumping adrenaline and the fight instinct propelling the weapon into her hands, it was a modified version of the standard Militech issue shotgun that she knew all about, a longer barrel, a heavier but more comfortable stock and red tipped spare gauge shells on the side. V bought herself into a firing position, steadying herself, she knew that by the little lettering on the spare shells they were solid shot, so like a giant bullet instead of the normal spread shells so she needed to be accurate, the stock fixed to her shoulder as she aimed at the charging netrunner, why it was sprinting at her from the front she didn't know but didn't complain and  _ fired.  _ This time, a hit. A good slug thudded into centre of mass and forcing the psycho to stumble over in a attempt to steady itself, unfortunately the round failed to ignite and V swore as she missed a successful attempt to load the next round in on the pump action shotgun , her fingers were shaking too much in barely constrained panic, the netrunner took the opportunity and stood still?

Its eyes flashed again and V felt a sharp tingling where her skin touched the shotgun, but otherwise nothing.

She fired again, her shoulder hurting from the recoil but this time the round actually ignited, a sudden burst of flame shot into view and suddenly the psychos torso was on fire, it looked down in confusion? as she fired again, and again, and again, each time remembering how to actually fire a gun and each time performing it easier, every impact bursting a deadly napalm round and causing the arms, then the legs of the netrunner to set alight. 

For a few seconds, the netrunner turned cyberpschyo stood completely still as the fires crept along its body armor, reaching its helmet and then the skin underneath.

And then it started shrieking, some inhuman wail of pain that sound more like a banshee’s vocals than anything a human being, even a cybernetically enhanced one could produce. Shrieking and howling came next, and then wriggling as it desperately threw off its helmet, its face already set on fire and the plastic skin underneath falling off in pathetically grim chunks, even its bottom lip had split open with pinkish fluid flowing out.

_ V stared on in horror as she witnessed what it was like to be completely set on fire, to witness the feeling of being burned to ash, the memories of the plasma scorch months ago fresh in her mind, if she wasnt shakingly high on adrenaline she’d throw up. _

__

The psycho took a stumbling step back, the sheer violence of its movements, hands turned into claws that raked over its body in a desperate attempt to pat the raging fires down, skin tearing in a dozen places and sickly looking fluids dripping out. It then fell backs into the sunken electric pit and.

And.

And V looked away, cringing. She didn't need to know what a combination of napalm and electricity did to a body. She was more concerned to why her fingers seemed to be bleeding ever so slightly, tiny little pinpricks of bloody from tiny little gashes, internally opened? Her joints ached aswell like a sharp scalpel was being pushed from them within. She did her best to ignore them, instead placing her shotgun down and tugging at the straps at the sargents body armor in a attempt to pry it off his corpse, bloody work but she was acutely aware of her vulnerability as a human with no sub dermal armor or cybernetics. About a minute? Later, she held the body armor with her left hand, it was reasonably heavy but completely intact and wearable.

Just as she was about to perform the motions to equip the armor over her tshirt, a faint moan that become steadily louder echo’d in the now quiet courtyard, it slowly grew from being just above the level of the crackling electricity to forming incoherent sentences. In pure horror V observed the blackend figure of the netrunner slowly pull itself out, stick like limbs, bereft of clothing and with only patches of synthetic skin remaining as a form of disgusting accessory pulled it along until it was clear.

Then it stood up, swaying to one side idly before pulling itself free at the last moment from toppling over, V’s eyes couldn't help but study it like she did with the deceased officers, its armor and what over garments remained were scorched and in some cases flushed with the cybernetic bone. Its left hand, skin and flesh combined to form some kind of lump instead of a hand while the others opened into a  _ hand _ but the fingers had split so deeply there was barely even a palm, just cracks.

Worse of all was its head. A skull covered in melted white wax with a pair of glaring red eyes, the fake eyeballs burnt away with only the sensors, the true eyes of a cyborg remained. And worse?  _ The final touch was that it possessed hair. _

  
  


Whatever it was, a reanimated construction, a final protocol or the netrunner just wasn't done yet. It shuffled towards V at frightening speed, closing the gap within seconds as V struggled to process what  _ the fuck she just witnessed. _

The psychos arms tore at V’s body , dragging great gouges of skin level blood from whatever nails remained in those busted fingers, the two of them fell to the side, V shifting closer to the electric field while the psycho pushed and pulled away, someone it managed to pin V down under its weight and V was trapped underneath briefly. For a second its fingers opened and closed erratically but the next second saw it reclaim its combat knife and it stabbed downwards, missing V’s vital parts but plunging deep into her midriff, causing her to scream in white hot pain as she thrashed from side to side and managed to wriggle free for a brief moment, rolling aside and clutching the bloody wound with her hand she managed to get free for a few vital seconds, excruciating pain aside V made to run for her discarded shotgun but the psycho was on her again in a flying tackle, V’s head narrowly missing a heavy smack into the floor as they twisted around each other in a flail of limbs.

Hot pain lashed to her side as the psycho scored another hit, this time managing to drag the knifes serrated blade upwards into her side and V screamed in agony as vital blood began to leave her body, in a fit of pain increased strength she managed to hurl them both into the nearby wall and temporarily dazed the psycho as she picked herself up, staggering away with white flashes at the edge of her vision.

_ Come on, come on, come on. _

With one hand nurturing her wound and stopping the blood flow as best as it could, V fell back to the plan B she devised not even five minutes ago, limping with a sagging torso twist she practically fell against this side of the courtyards circuit panel, frantically and with shaking fingers that frustratingly missed the correct way to open the panel, panic seeping him and causing her to keep  _ fucking up such a simple task.  _ Ruined footsteps from behind egging her on as the psycho was just metres away V wrenched open the panel and immediately activated the circuit panel and overcharged the box, reaching downwards to grab the emergency cable she ran back to the sunken pit and joined the cable with the electricity there.

_ It needs both circuits to be active or they wont activate. _

A speeding screech erupted into her eardrums and she was once again tackled, flying backwards into the opposite wall and just a arms reach away from the second panel, the psycho grabbed its knife and slammed the pommel into V’s face, forcing her to reel away and crack the back of her skull into the wall, with barely enough time to receiver she dodged the knife end intended for her head and the blade glanced off the concrete instead, V’s fist countered into the psychos head as retribution and the best she could do was to stagger it momentarily, enough for her to side stumbleshuffle achingly closer to the panel, her shotgun so far out of reach that this was the only option.

  
  


_ So much pain, she was crying. Tears streaking down, wetness joining with blood. Her veins would be popping open if there was any more adrenaline and panic to flood them. She couldnt speak even if she wanted to, if any sound were to come out of her vocal chords it’d be barely suppressed cries of pain. _

Her left hand was somehow still holding onto that body armor, either she’d forgotten to let it go or she’d intended for it to be used for something but that intention was lost now. 

The psycho smashed into V again and staggered her backwards, trying to pin her arms down for that fateful knife thrust, V resisted and thrashed as hard as she could with her free hand, they crashed into the wall again with numbing force, the psycho unrelenting in its grip with that murder weapon, murderous red eyes glowing the while time even as V managed to throw the hardest punch she’d ever mustered in her life, her fist cracked against the psychos nose and she repeated the action again and again even while her knuckles split and her fingers became messy and torn, eventually the psycho stumbled and V impressively managed a full kick to its crotch, temporily buying herself time as she reached the circuit.

But eventually it got her, V was never going to outlast the ridiculous amount of energy a cybernetic could muster, eventually she messed up and all of her reactions born out of unification war, training and memories failed her just that once. That one time where she wasnt quick enough and that time the psychos knife landed straight into her collarbone, a deep cut where the blade sliced all the way in, deep enough that the nerves endings on her back felt the tip.

And then it turned the knife towards her neck, V shifted to the right and the combat blade instead ended up at her shoulder, if she wasn't screaming in complete agony then V would be now, but her enchanted ears simply blocked out all noise at this point, her arm went limp and she stopped feeling any weight, or anything at all in that arm.

She was going to die, right here. Backed up against a circuit unit that she couldn't reach with her arm, she’d never get to go be Rita's advice to be more assertive, she’d be too busy dying in some shithole courtyard in some shithole block in some shithole place in the shithole that was Night City.

Evelyn never’d be aware that she’d gotten V to back out of a phone call she didn't want to have for the first time.

And Judy…

V couldnt ever be able to express how much she enjoyed being with that girl, nerding out together over machinery and electronics, laughing together about stupid shit and she’d never let Judy know about the safety and comfort V felt at Judy’s apartment, how if there was a place she’d ever be able to sleep at without hiding under something, it’d be there. 

But most of her, she wanted to cuddle Judy again in that weird Judy’s head to her shoulder, nestled in skin to skin contact where the techies arms would be wrapped around her and she could breath easily and calmly.

No none of that, because she was too busy being too stupid and too much of a fucking gonk running away from Judy and everyone to end up like this.

  
  


No.

_ No. _

_ NO. _

She’d survived the Unification war, Dallas, Utah,getting shot in the head repeatedly for a cause she didn't give much of a shit about other than it felt good and it gave her the equilievent of happy pills injected straight into the blood stream.

  
  


_ She wanted to see Rita again, to tell her that she’d been assertive and told somebody no. _

_ She wanted to talk to Evelyn once more and turn down a phone call and do something more productive with her time. _

_ And most of all? _

_ She wanted to see Judy, to witness the glimmer of joy in the girls eyes when they nattered on about something stupid that only they could understand. That she and Judy could sit down together and do something  _ _ together. _

_ She wanted. _

_ She wanted that. _

  
  


Fury pulled her up, an intense burning passion brighter than the napalm rounds could ever reach , that she would see Judy again and this stupid fucking renanimated corpse of a pathetic netrunner wouldnt stop her.

If her arm couldn't open the circuits, then something else would. The back of her head touched the edge of the panel and with all her might she inched closer until there was no more edge and just panal.

_ One.  _ She leant forwards and then smacked her head backwards.

_ Two.  _ Pain, but not enough to stop her.

_ Three. _ She could taste a bit of blood in her mouth.

_ Four.  _ Harder! She slammed it this time.

_ Five.  _ The netrunner was still trying to dislodge the knife in her shoulder but she didnt care, she screamed instead and kept at it.

_ Six. _ She stopped feeling the pain and her head was knife but she kept at it, the panel was loose now.

_ Seven.  _ With one final effort she attacked the circuit panel with blood, flesh and her skull, it came open and dropped to the ground. Twisting as much as she could and surprising the netrunner, she kicked it again and it stumbled backwards, with frighteningly fast speed V once again overloaded the circuits manually, bypassing all the safeties and with her one functional hand, grabbed the end of the now live wire and ran with it, body slamming the psycho face first into the sunken electrical pit, it started desperately writhing under her touch and she was pressing it so hard into the ground that the knife in her shoulder actually went in deeper but she didn't care.

She placed the live wire into the electric field and watched as the world around her erupted into blue, the lights in the buildings around went dark and the figure below her crackled blue, but she wasn't done yet, she kept holding the psycho down even as it fought her to get away, she’d see Judy and this fucking thing was going to pay for stopping.

When it stopped writhing, V pulled herself up and reached into her pocket, the bottle of vitamin water somehow still there.

With a final look at the carnage she wrought, V poured the water onto the cyber psychos body, making sure it was dead this time.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
  
  


  
  


She used the shotgun as a crutch to pick herself up , the gates blocking her way, underpowered enough were easy enough to pry open with the barrel and V made her way onto the street at a painfully slow rate, for a good kilometre or so there was no street lamps, no vending machines brightly lit or even a single light in sight other than the occasional car coming back with its headlamps on full.

Didn't matter, her eyes were perfectly capable of reflecting the light from the other city blocks and painting her a rough picture of the pavement and her surroundings.

Out of breath and with that damm knife still stuck in her shoulder, Militech body armor hanging off a hand she couldn't use, V managed to prop herself up against a bench long enough to take her phone out of her back pocket, she could ring Judy now, or Evelyn, tell them where she was (near the block that she’d just shut the lights out) and they could pick her up, her heart swelling and mood improving at the thoughts of seeing them again. To leave this dull chapter behind and move on.

She made to switch her phone on, it’d probably turned itself off or gone silent.

Eh?   
  
She thumbed the power button again, nothing. Just a dark screen that was wholly useless given the current atmosphere and lighting.

“Alright, maybe you’re already on lemme just” She went through the motion of dialing Judy and held it to her ear, expecting to hear a dialing tone that didnt happen but she did put it on silent so.

“Hey Judy it’s me” No reply.

Voicemail?   
  
“Judy, its V? Ring me when you get this, I’d like to be able to talk things out and stuff” She replied cheerfully and waited for the voicemail to end.

It didn't, infact there wasn't anything, no voice saying “please leave your message after the tone”   
  
She thumbed the power button again.

Then again.

Frantically. Again.

_ Don't panic. _

She was a idiot.

She’d been through an electric field more than twice and practically emp’d an entire city block, her phone wasn’t powered off. It was  dead.

And that's when the panic truly began to settle in.

She couldn't help herself from choking on her words, her needy little voice that came out in staggered heaves. “Judy, I...Judy. Fuck I.”

“M’miss you Judy” She wheezed, desperately staggering towards the biggest building she could see off in the distance, some tower with a hundred floors of lights, the largest and brightest object she could find, she couldnt go out like this, not like this.  She ignored that her shoulder was literally hanging on by a thread, that her side was bleeding heavily and that she was using a loaded shotgun as a crutch, she’d killed that fucking cyberpsycho to get out and she was going to die on the street either, she’d make it to the light, she’d find her way back and-.

And.

Autopilot mode now, no talking, thinking neither. Just V pulling her shuffling shambling body along at a sinfully slow speedy. Head was light, back of head numb, fingers hurts,joints hurt, she was dragging weight along somewhere but kept it. 

  
  


Eventually someone did her find when she made it, damn near collapsing, she couldn't respond and just started blankly when they started shaking her up and down. Were they speaking in Spanish? She couldn't understand a word of what they were saying and she was too _ damm tired to resist.  _ She blacked out at some point, the pain in her head throbbing too hard to fight. 

When she woke up, eyelids heavy and struggling to open, she was laying flat on her back on a operating table, a set of computers to her far left and  _ was that a cat? _ Two figures on her right, one strangely familiar and the other with a spiked collar around her neck. The machine to her right beeped steadily, probably a heartbeat monitor and her body slowly awoke to detect all manner of tubes and wiring inserted, if she wasn't covered with this blanket like thing then.

Well she was thankful she was covered. And she felt strangely better to, mood improved and far calmer then she remembered on the streets.

“Hey Misty, you see the AV hovering around earlier? Think it was Militech or something?” The familiar figure, one she couldn't put a name to spoke quietly as they stood together in hushed conversation.

“Mhmm, it was. Looking for our friend here”   
  
“How do you figure?”   
  
“I just know Jackie”   
  
“Fair”   
  
“She’s awake by the way”   
  
How?   
V straightened up and immediately yelped out in pain as her left shoulder utterly refused to move, everything from the blade on down, to where the knife lodged itself in was unresponsive and  _ very tender right now. _ “Fuck!” She winced and realised the same was for her midriff and the area near her stomach, it took her a brief moment to remember she’d been stabbed three times.

The guy, a big man, wearing one of those pozer jackets ringed with the weird little bump thingies came up closer to the table, the girl following close behind. 

“Hey” The guy’s complexion softened , alarmingly disarmingly so and V couldn't help but smile back when he did. “Jackie Welles” He raised out a hand, presumably for that weird social handshake greeting thing people did.

“V, just V” She replied, an oddly brief pang of sourness that she didnt have a surname, Welles sounded pretty  _ official. _

She glanced down at Jackie's outstretched greeting. “I’d uh, shake your hand but mines not willing” 

“Eh?”   
  
“Bad joke, sorry”. 

“Ah” Jackie smiled again and sat down in the nearby chair, he spoke something in Spanish to the girl hovering around. Jackie then fixed V with a long,slow gaze, his eyes widening in realization soon enough. Fist clamped to a open palm, a finger pointing at her.   
  
“I know you, you were there at Lizzie’s with Evelyn and Judy?”   
  
“Yeah”   
  
“They’re your friends? You’re phone is pretty much fried so ol’ Vik was stuck wondering how to find someone to take you home when your done here”   
  
“Yeah” V nodded, a sudden weight lifted off her as she realised that she was going to see Judy and Ev’ after all.

  
_ “Alright, we’ll call them in a bit. Vik’ll be back soon and I don't think you were supposed to be awake, he’s sort of well, not done with you yet. We’ll see you in a bit alright? Dont worry chica, you’ll see your friends soon enough”. _

~~~~~~~~~~~~

28 October, 2077.

Message received from Alex Miller.

A.Miller: Hey B, how's the science going?   
  
Me: Not too bad, currently trying to figure out a way to make up for the loss in research potential after the Utah incident.

A.Miller: The one with V? She’s still missing you know?   
  
Me: Presumed death, I’ve seen the reports, her broken helmet was found and left behind, a high calibre rifle shot was the likely cause of death, it's a pity because I was going to use her individual case for my next paper about surviving brain injuries.

A.Miller: Sounds….interesting, what if shes still alive?

Me: I doubt it, nobody can survive this kind of prolonged exposure without the chip and the chip itself needs a maintenance cycle of every three months and it's been nine since she went missing, a pity. I’m still angry about my direct order to not send any of the PeterPans into combat being ignored.

A.Miller: There was a mix up, she was still listed on the engineer program and presumably the system roped her in. Why cant they survive without the chip anyway?   
  
Me: You never read do you? Long story short, it's a biological chip, completely different from the shit Araska is pulling, it regulates the body and keeps the hormone levels, mood, brain, everything in check, without it the body kind of just. Falls apart?

Me: Its a shame, but there's still ten left and its not difficult to find a Nomad child with brain injuries, fucking savages cant raise thier offspring properly and it show, especially amongst the Bakkers and Snakes.

A.Miller: Bakkers are gone. Snake nation gobbled them. Oh! Before I forget, I have a chat room for us to hop into, got something that’ll surprise you :)   
  
  


  
  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
Invitation to chatroom accepted.

A.Miller: Hey Winters.   
  
Me: Whats this about? 

A.Miller: Floors urs Stout.

M.Stout: Hi, I don't believe we’ve met.

Me: We have not, but for real. I’m a very busy person, please.

M.Stout: Sorry, alright. Director Miller believes that this information would be worthwhile to you. Long story short this file I’ve just uploaded details a cyberpsycho attack that happened in the Kabuki district of Watson, one of the special ops agents, a netrunner called Mower went full c’psycho and killed a pair of police officers and a squad routed to her.

Me: Fascinating but I don't see what this has to concern me with, Alex?   
  
A.Miller: The cyberpsycho was taken down by a civilian , no cybernetics or anything, the officer in a charge; A Sargent Marks? I think? His recording equipment was kept online and Mower locked down the area, the only other contact in the area with a civvie with no upgrades so it's fair to say they killed Monroe, fucker took her out by overloading her with the electrical output of an entire block so safe to say they’re pretty smart.

Me: Fascinating, do we know who did it?   
  
M.Stout: No clue, the EMP and the damage to the area pretty much kills any chance of identifying them. The pick up AV did a few sweeps and found nothing, I can ask around with the crime lords but this fucking investigation is taking up most of my time.

A.Miller: I can deal with that, who’s ur boss Merry?

M.Stout: Anthony Gilchrist, senior operations manager.   
  


A.Miller: Hes a fucking tool, ill put the blame on him, u’ll b my operations agent in Night City in a week or two when ive dealt with him, I want you to start preparations for the file attachment ive just sent u.

M.Stout : Holy shit, you can do that?   
  
A.Miller: They made me Director of the western seaboard ops for a reason and now you can also call Winters, Director of the entire fucking Science Divison a friend now too^^   
  
M.Stout: Fuck, thanks, what can I do to pay you back?   
  


Me: Just forward me any info if that civvie ever comes up on your radar.

M.Stout: Gotcha, and thank you Miller.

A.Miller: No probz, now we need to have a chat about Saburo Arasaka, we’ll have to switch channels for a bit. More people to deal with, this’ll be our lil private comms for now, coming Winters?

  
Me: I need a hour or two to finish up, besides I know already what’s going on, just fill me in when I get there.

  
  
  
  
  


Seven To The Head

Chapter Eight Part Two

Episode One Finale: “Snow Globes”

~~~~~~

  
  
  


Holy fuck I finished it, well thats episode one do. Two more to go, I’d like to thank everyone (again) for sticking by this far. There’s so many questions and barely any answers for our V. I’ll be dedicating time to finish book one for my HTTYD fic, haven't updated that since November aswell as finishing my girls und panzer fic. 

Regardless we have so much more to go for V! The plot thickens afterall. Stay tuned everyone, and thank you. Thank you so much for reading and staying here with me :)


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